Hallmark Launches Unemployment Greeting Cards [PHOTOS]

Hallmark is going into the unemployment business -- sort of -- with the launch of its very own line of unemployment greeting cards.

With the U.S. unemployment rate at 9 percent, the nation's leading card company isn't holding anything back in its new collection, which ranges from animals lining up for jobs to a card that simply states, Life isn't Fair.

The idea for the unemployment greeting cards actually came from customers.

They sent us letters. They phoned it in. They asked their retailers . . . where do I find a card that says this? And again, loss of job, like any loss, is a grieving process . . . so that's where we kind of offer more cards on the, you'll get through this, versus dwelling on the loss of the job itself, Hallmark creative director Derek McCracken told NPR.

People in times of need will always need to connect and when the consumers have asked us for a way to connect in those difficult situations, we try to respond in an authentic way and we think that's what the greeting card does is offer a bridge, McCracken added.

The collection, found under the search term job loss, consists of 11 greeting cards and 18 electronic cards.

One card, featuring an owl on a branch, reads on the outside, One day, you'll look back on all this with the wisdom that distance bestows, and you'll say, followed by Wow, that sucked, on the inside.

Another card is more encouraging.

Stacey, don't think of it as losing your job, the cover reads.

Think of it as a time-out between stupid bosses, the greeting says on the inside.

The new Hallmark cards are being sold online and in selected stores across the country.

Question is, would you send an unemployment greeting card to your nearest and dearest?