More people are out of work for a longer period of time. In November, the number of people in America who are considered “long-term unemployed” — that is, out of a job and looking for one for at least 27 weeks — was about 1.7 million. That’s around half a million more than the same time a year ago.
Being involuntarily jobless comes with all sorts of challenges — and those challenges become more pronounced the longer you’re looking for work.
Hilary Rosensteel has been searching for a full-time job for about a year now. At the beginning, she was gung-ho looking for nonprofit positions.
“So I did get some nibbles, but at the time, they were only from areas outside of the state. And looking back, maybe I should have taken it,” she said.
Rosensteel lives in Maryland, which is where she was born. She’s also a single mom and didn’t want to move away.
So she kept looking. But life kind of happened: Her roof needed repairs, she had major dental work, and sometimes the job search had to be put on the back burner.
“Some weeks, I’ve applied for seven or 10 jobs. And then some weeks, I mean, I hate to say it, zero,” she said.
Rosensteel is planning to deliver groceries for Instacart, and she’s trying everything she can to speed up the job search.
“I guess I don’t have to write a full soliloquy for every cover letter. Maybe I should try to — I don’t know. Maybe I should — I don’t know what to do!” she said.
Being unemployed for a long time can be kind of earthshaking for people, said Victor Tan Chen. He’s the author of “Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy.“
“Work is so central to our identity,” he said. “Not having it leads to identity crisis that you feel like, ‘What’s my purpose, what’s my meaning?'”
Chen said long-term unemployment can have major psychological effects, comparable to going through a divorce or grieving. He said it can also lead to “unemployment scarring.”
“Employers won’t consider you as seriously because they see you as, you know, quote, damaged goods,” Chen said. “You’ve been out of work for so long, there must be some reason that employers haven’t picked you up.”
Also, the longer workers are away from work, the less they’re plugged in and able to network, said Julia Pollak, chief economist at the hiring site ZipRecruiter.
“Being out of it for a while can be quite stigmatizing,” she said.
All this can lead to a vicious circle, where people who have been unemployed, stay unemployed. Then they’re more likely to just fall out of the labor market.
That’s not only bad for them, it’s bad for the economy as a whole.
