Monday, June 1, 2009

Long term unemployed numbers grow (from NPR)

The Business Story of the Day from NPR was the long term unemployed numbers grow outlines some of the issues about long term unemployment and its consequences:

  • more college grads are affected; it isn't blue collar workers alone
  • employers are skeptical about hiring people who have had a significant gap in their resumes. I wish this one wasn't true.
  • are the long term unemployed, who just stop looking, still counted as "unemployed". According to Surviving a Layoff by Lita Epstein, "Some estimate the jobless rate in this country to be closer to 10 percent if one considers the under-employed and those who have given up looking" (p.x).
I urge job seekers to fearlessly account for the gap, either on their resume or during their interview, and for HR managers to have some compassion and really listen to them when they explain. You could be next HR person: get some good karma.

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