Stuck at Unemployed: When A Layoff Becomes a Lifestyle
…The pace of job losses may be slowing — the government reported yesterday that employers shed a net 345,000 jobs in May, far less than economists had expected — but for Thomas and other U.S. workers, things feel like they’re still getting worse. The unemployment rate is now at 9.4 percent, and a record 27 percent of the nation’s 14.5 million jobless have been unemployed for about six months or longer. Many are only now seeing their unemployment benefits expire, their homes falling into foreclosure and their lives upended.
The ranks of the long-term unemployed are not expected to recede until job growth picks up in earnest, and if past recessions are any guide, that’s not likely to happen for at least another year. After the recession of the early 1980s, it took seven months for the number of long-term unemployed to peak; after the 2001 recession, which was followed by historically anemic job growth, it took 19 months.
“While the overall unemployment rate was higher in the ’80s, people are getting stuck in unemployment longer than they did in that recession,” said Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute.
…more…