No End in Sight
by James Surowiecki
The talk in Washington these days is all about budget deficits, tax rates, and the “fiscal crisis” that supposedly looms in our near future. But this chatter has eclipsed a much more pressing crisis here and now: almost thirteen million Americans are still unemployed. Though the job market has shown some signs of life in recent months, the latest figures on new jobs and on unemployment-insurance claims have been decidedly unimpressive. We are stuck with an unemployment rate three points higher than the postwar average, and the percentage of working adult Americans is as low as it’s been in almost thirty years. What’s most troubling is that so much of this unemployment is long-term. Forty per cent of the unemployed have been without a job for six months or more—a much higher rate than in any recession since the Second World War—and the average length of unemployment is about forty weeks, a number that has changed very little since 2010. The economic recovery has now lasted nearly three years, but for millions of Americans it hasn’t yet begun.
Being unemployed is even more disastrous for individuals than you’d expect. Aside from the obvious harm—poverty, difficulty paying off debts—it seems to directly affect people’s health, particularly that of older workers. A study by the economists Till von Wachter and Daniel Sullivan found that among experienced male workers who lost their jobs during the 1981-82 recession mortality rates soared in the year after the layoffs. And the effects of unemployment linger. Many studies have shown that the lifetime earnings of workers who become unemployed during a recession are permanently reduced, and von Wachter and Sullivan found that mortality rates among laid-off workers were much higher than average even twenty years afterward.
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2012/04/30/120430ta_talk_surowiecki
Long term unemployment is apparently not only detrimental to a person's financial well being, but also to their health. Unfortunately, long term unemployment may be the new normal.
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What's frustrating is that these friends did everything right. They got an education, worked hard and were loyal employees. And all for what? To be kicked to the curb like debris so that some company could save a few bucks. It makes me sick.
The friend that chose to retire had wanted to work until her late 60s since she is healthy and likes to keep active. Alas, she too figured that no one would want to hire a 63 year old. What a shame, so much talent wasted!!!
