I never got my A+ Certification since I started my own busines in Atlanta.  However, your right, its like needed for anything you do now.  I've been trying to freakin find a job here in Virginia and its been a pain in the ass.  I'm at the point of trying to find anything, I could care less what it is and still haven't been able to find anything.  I think the economy is going to shit because nobody wants to hire around here.  A+ wasn't needed back in the day, and most of the companies around here paying anything decent like 35,000+ are requring A+ and MCSE (best case scenario like $55,000+).  MCSE alone takes you like months to get without any practice and also a shit load of money from what I've heard.  I simply can't afford the certifications themselves.  

Right now I'm doing a merchandising job for a milk company on weekends but thats a lousy $150.00 every saturday night to sunday morning.  Not bad for 6 hours worth of work, but its only $600.00/month then you cut taxes and gas and maybe u get $450.00.  That is hardly enough to survive on lol.  But it pays the car payment and insurance at least.

To be honest, I don't know if I could pass the real A+ exam.  It asks a lot of question related to old dos stuff that isn't required on many things you do now.  I use to know it... but after years of forgetting about it, hell, I'd probably fail.  I would download some free A+ exam tests... maybe even a study guide (get the most recent, very important) and see if you can pass then.  Other than taking a course and then the test, I dunno.  I would look at getting MCSE as well if you have the time to do so... a lot easier to do it now then later.  It is only going to get harder to get and more expensive to obtain.  I think a buddy of mine just got his and he said it was like $3000.00 just to take the course/exam.  That's a lot of bread just to get paid... no worse than a CDL though (and again he landed $53,000/year plus benefits just for having MSCE, and $53,000/year here is like $85,000 in Atlanta.).

BTW... I wasn't calling you a jobless bum lol.  You had mentioned something about other people have other things to do in the summer like I was only browsing forums all day and it added to my frustration.  I was just making a hard headed comment back to you that was not cool at all, I apologize for that as well.

Good luck though and let me know if you find any good A+ free tests/exams.. I need to be looking at that as well.

Sorry I couldn't be more of help, I've been outdated on those certs since they began lol.