Record Unemployment Fuels Depression & Loss of Identity

[marmar]

Record Unemployment Fuels Depression & Loss of Identity
Chad Brooks, LiveScience Contributor

Date: 14 April 2011 Time: 10:46 AM ET


The amount of time Americans go without work has reached a record level, according to data released last month, and today the Labor Department said new claims for unemployment benefits rose unexpectedly last week.

Meanwhile, a new study finds all this joblessness doesn’t bode well for the nation’s emotional health.

In its March employment data report, the U.S. Department of Labor noted that more than 45 percent of those who are unemployed have been without work for longer than six months; the average length of unemployment is at a record 39 weeks. And first-time claims for unemployment benefits jumped 27,000 last week to 412,000.

Unemployed workers express a lot of dissatisfaction and unhappiness with their lives, and that unhappiness rises the longer they remain unemployed, according to the new research conducted for the Brookings Institution. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.livescience.com/13710-unemployment-depression-identity-job-search.html

[patrice]

1. Tell me about it.

[supernova]

2. Yes, very familiar with it

One of the things I've learned, and the article corroborates, is you have to find your own structure to your day, instead of expecting a job to provide it.

[Pacifist Patriot]

3. My pastoral care responsibilities have shifted drastically in the last few years.

This is spot on.

[midnight]

4. Report: 27 Million Adults in America Not Working

The share of the population that is working fell to its lowest level last year since women started entering the workforce in large numbers three decades ago, a USA TODAY analysis finds.

Only 45.4% of Americans had jobs in 2010, the lowest rate since 1983 and down from a peak of 49.3% in 2000. Last year, just 66.8% of men had jobs, the lowest on record.

The bad economy, an aging population and a plateau in women working are contributing to changes that pose serious challenges for financing the nation’s social programs.


This ratio of employed to unemployed, ultimately, is the problem in America. It’s why people feel like things are getting worse, in record numbers. Idleness is the great ill of society today. We’re not doing much to combat it, just hoping that things will slowly get better while moving on to other issues. But all the issues are connected. You can’t have a federal budget in balance, to the extent that you’d even want one, with 27 million adults not working.http://firedoglake.com/


This is what a jobless recovery looks like.... Lot's of people thrown out of their jobs, and the bankers making record profits....


We have to sake ourselves why would we allow a jobless recovery? Those with money and a job tell us that this is the way things have to be.... But I say Bull Shit....

[justabob]

5. it IS bullshit

Service is terrible across the board. Waiting for repairs, waiting for answers to effing yes or no questions, phone trees, self check out..... Pretty simple fix would be to hire some folks, but that would mean the big boys on the top floor might lose a million (or whatever obscene number) out of their multimillion dollar pay package for a little while. It is disgusting on many levels.

edit... changed an and to an or

[ck4829]

6. There are fewer things that are more humiliating than involuntary unemployment

You can't provide.
You can't work.
You can't be independent.
But you WANT to work, to provide, and be independent.
And while all this is happening, you face daily accusations that you are "lazy", a "mooch", you are told to just "get a job" even though you can't find one and want one so desperately.

The people who think that the involuntarily unemployed are just having fun should rent out their heads for storage space, because they clearly aren't using them at all.

K&R.