Are You Long-Term Unemployed? It’s Tough, and You’re Not Alone
I know this is an entry on being long-term unemployed, but before we can get there, we have to start with the basics. That means first laying out the official U.S. government criteria for unemployment. Here they are:
you must be jobless,
you must be looking for a job,
and you must be available for work.
Remember - meeting those criteria simply means that you are officially unemployed and labeled as such by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. These days, it’s fairly common to have been unemployed at some point in your adult life. According to one poll from just before the start of the COVID pandemic, 40% of Americans have been laid off or terminated from a job at least once. The numbers are probably even higher now!
To me, this makes sense. I’ve known a ton of people who’ve been involuntarily unemployed at some point. It feels like it’s become one of those situations that you expect to deal with sooner or later, if you haven’t faced it already. I mean, over the last 2 decades, we’ve seen huge numbers of people get laid off during the Great Recession and COVID pandemic alone. However, don’t get me wrong - knowing it’s a possibility at some point in the nebulous future doesn’t mean that people are able to anticipate when a lay-off or termination is actually going to happen, and it doesn’t take away the stress, the hardship, or the stigma around being unemployed.
Now that I’ve laid the groundwork for unemployment and for how common it is, I want to talk about long-term unemployment, which is when you are unemployed for at least 27 consecutive weeks, or a little over 6 months. Anything less than that is considered short-term unemployment.
Let’s move away from the technical definitions and just understand what this means on the psychological and individual human level. It means that if you’re currently long-term unemployed, you’ve been through many months of actively looking and applying for jobs, likely accompanied by a whole host of emotions: stress, anxiety, hope, frustration, disappointment, and uncertainty, just to name a few. If you’ve never been long-term unemployed before, take a second to imagine what it would be like for you. If you’ve been or are currently long-term unemployed, take a second to acknowledge how emotionally difficult it is or was.
I think people are more uncomfortable with talking about long-term unemployment than short-term unemployment because there is even greater stigma attached to being out of work for a longer period of time (more on that later). The effect of that societal stigma is that you might be self-conscious about letting others know how long you’ve been out of work. It’s just easier to say “oh, I’ve been unemployed for a while” than to specify that it’s been over six months. The problem with trying to hide how long you’ve been out of work is that it contributes to a culture of silence around long-term unemployment, which makes it seem like a rare thing, and makes those who are long-term unemployed feel even more alone. In fact, long-term unemployment is more common than you might realize. Here’s just a few numbers to put it in context:
In “normal” economic times, the long-term unemployed make up about 20% (give or take a few percentage points) of all unemployed people at any given point. One out of five.
Another stat that really drives home the point: in “normal” economic times, 45% of workers who become unemployed are NOT re-employed full-time within a year after they lose their job. Wow.
All of these numbers change for “non-normal” times, which in the last couple of decades, refers to the massive disruptions to our economy that followed the Great Recession of 2008 and again with COVID in 2020.
Looking at the period following the Great Recession: 60% of workers who became unemployed at that time were NOT re-employed within a year.
Let’s look at the period aCOVID: at its worst, the long-term unemployed made up over 40% of the total unemployment numbers!
All of these numbers are just to say that if you are long-term unemployed, you are far from alone. However, because of the stigma surrounding long-term unemployment, there’s a lot of silence, shame, and fear of judgment around the topic. Let me clarify: I’m not saying that people who are short-term unemployed don’t deal with stigma; in fact, the negative assumptions and perceptions of short-term unemployed people and long-term unemployed people are the same. However, those negative judgments of your character or personal worth become stronger the longer you are unemployed. In other words, the stigma increases. Here are some of those negative assumptions and perceptions:
You were not the best employee at your last job (the assumption being that organizations keep their best employees, and only lay off the not so great ones)
That there’s a good reason why you haven’t been re-hired already
That you’re lazy and not ambitious enough (the assumption being that if you were really trying, you would have been re-hired already)
That we live in a meritocracy, and therefore if you haven’t found a new job yet, it’s because you don’t have the necessary skills and abilities, and thus do not merit being re-hired
There is no evidence to suggest that any of these things are true, and so these assumptions only serve to stigmatize those who have employment gaps! And as I mentioned, the negative judgements only intensify for the long-term unemployed. For example, someone might think: “oh, you’ve been unemployed for 4 months? maybe there’s a reason you hasn’t been rehired” versus “oh, you’ve been unemployed for 9 months? there’s definitely a reason you haven’t been rehired.” This is even measurable - one research study found that employers were significantly less interested in extending a job interview callback for those who had been long-term unemployed for at least 9 months.
So not only do people who are long-term unemployed have to deal with the stresses of being out of work and not finding new work, but the longer you’re unemployed, the more you are stigmatized. No wonder why depression rates steadily climb the longer you’re unemployed, with the long-term unemployed hit the hardest.
Being long-term unemployed is inherently stressful and psychologically taxing, but as a society, how we collectively stigmatize unemployment is only making things worse. In fact, a study showed that just anticipating stigma negatively impacts the psychological health of those who are unemployed. So from a mental health perspective, one of the most important things that we can do is to work on de-stigmatizing long-term unemployment. Here’s how:
Education and awareness. You’re educating yourself right now by reading this post and the various linked articles, polls, and research that are embedded throughout. You’re probably realizing that it’s really unfair to blame people for their own long-term unemployment. Keep doing your own research! You’ll come to understand that there are many complex and systemic reasons that lead to long-term unemployment, beyond what I’ve covered here. You’ll learn that we shouldn’t stigmatize those who are long-term unemployed, and we shouldn’t be ashamed if we are long-term unemployed ourselves.
Talk about it. This topic has lived in the shadows for far too long. Our discomfort and silence around the topic only reinforce the idea that there is something wrong with people who are unemployed for a long time. If you are long-term unemployed, the more you keep your unemployment a secret, the heavier a burden you will be carrying. Talk about it with your loved ones, and seek out others in the same situation to connect with. If you’re not long-term unemployed, share what you’ve learned about long-term unemployment with others. The more you talk about this topic in thoughtful, empathetic ways (hopefully after increasing your education and awareness around the topic), the less stigma there will be around long-term unemployment.
Be an advocate at your workplace (if you’re employed). If you have a job at the moment, volunteer to join hiring committees, or talk to your HR. You can advocate for your organization to not consider employment gap length when evaluating job applicants, and spread some awareness of why that’s important at the same time.
Advocate on a larger scale. You can support community programs and initiatives that work with people who are long-term unemployed. You can also lobby at a state or national level for policies that reduce discrimination and provide support for the long-term unemployed. One final idea - you can engage in a public discourse online to challenge the stigma of long-term unemployment and promote understanding.
Remember the importance of mental health support. If you’re long-term unemployed, please consider getting some professional mental health support if you can. It can be so helpful. Unemployment is psychologically taxing, and sometimes it’s hard to not internalize the societal stigma that you feel all around you. That’s when a professional can help. Of course, I am keenly aware of the barriers to access when you’re not employed - the lack of health insurance and the high cost of therapy are two of the greatest challenges. Do some digging around - there are low-cost clinics and therapists who provide sliding-scale fees out there, and with the increase in teletherapy, you can cast a wider net than before. If you have a job, but are supporting a loved one who is long-term employed, please encourage them to seek out professional help.
Want to share your experience with being long-term unemployed? Or want to weigh-in on anything in this post? Please comment below.
