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For the past decade, the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University in New Jersey has been tapping into attitudes about the workplace and, more recently, about being unemployed. In a nationwide survey of 1,200 Americans who have been unemployed and looking for a job for 12 months, the center discovered some pretty raw feelings of hopelessness, worry, and sometimes, depression.
Said one unemployed person surveyed:
"I know I have talent and skill in the profession I am trained in. It is a blow to my self-esteem that
I know I have this skill and it is just so difficult to compete for work in my field. I have already
moved to another state in an attempt to find work, and it’s still a struggle."
And another:
"Being unemployed is frustrating, demeaning and, at this point, frightening. Articles in the paper
say we “baby boomers” will have to work for a few more years especially since so many of us
have lost half if not more in retirement “funds”. Now, you tell me, how can I work for a few more
years if I can’t even get a job interview?!"
Yet another:
"The lack of income and loss of health benefits hurts greatly, but losing the ability to provide for
my wife and myself is killing me emotionally."
Most--82 percent--don't think they will have a new job within the next few months. That could be why so many say they are stressed (77 percent), depressed (68 percent), and feel helpless (61 percent). Money pressures are fierce: 84 percent got no severance pay when they were laid off, while 63 percent have used savings and retirement money to make it through unemployment. Half have no health insurance. Add to this the fact that 60 percent of the unemployed lost their jobs with no advance warning, and 80 percent got two weeks notice, and the emotional impact of being laid off is suddenly very clear. "The jobless have had to
face the fact that their old jobs, incomes, and work identity are gone," said Rutgers Professor Cliff Zukin, co-author of the study. "They are our neighbors, our former colleagues, and they are living in a world of hurt.”
Do the study's findings ring true in your own life, or of experiences of friends and family members who have been or are unemployed during this recession that won't quit?
For more on dealing with unemployment on Shine:
- Unemployment's impact on your health
- 9 ways to cope with job loss
- Credit card companies: Let's make a deal!
