Money & Company    September 30, 2011 

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With national unemployment sticking around 9%, Hallmark -- long in the business of marking holidays and special occasions -- has come out with a line of "encouragement" cards geared for people out of work.

Call it a sign of the times.

One card depicts animals clad in business attire queuing up outside an unemployment office. "It's hard to know what to say at a sensitive time like this," goes the message. "How about, 'I'm buying!'"

Another urges: "Don't think of it as losing your job. Think of it as a time-out between stupid bosses."

Hallmark Creative Director Derek McCracken told NPR's All Things Considered that the idea for producing unemployment cards came from the company's own customers.

"They sent us letters. They phoned it in. They asked their retailers, you know, in their neighborhood, where do I find a card that said this?" McCracken said. "Loss of a job, like any loss, is a grieving process."

A Hallmark spokesman told the AFP that the company didn't expect the cards to be blockbusters but will fill a "relevant and niche consumer need."

The eight cards, which range from funny to groaningly sentimental, retail for $3.49."

-- Shan Li

Photos: Hallmark unemployment cards. Credit: Hallmark