44% of the currently unemployed have been out of work for 6 months or more.
Source: CNNMoney.com
It’s been almost a year since I was unemployed and collecting checks from the government. The market was near its trough, my health was failing, and my insurance was running out, but based on these numbers, it seems I lucked out. I was only technically unemployed for about a month and afterward I had contract work that matched and often exceeded my prior salary.
CNN also had a depressing gallery of people who have simply given up and stopped looking for work. Keep in mind, if you’ve technically stopped looking, you fall out of the official unemployment rate, which means the real unemployment rate is much worse. Some of the people in this gallery have applied to hundreds of jobs and received nothing in response. Having been in their shoes before, I can understand the feelings of hopelessness when looking for a job in a down economy.
Just further evidence that the economy is not out of the recession and those with jobs should be thankful.
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