'The Future Is Terrifying': 6.2 Million Long-Term Unemployed Living On the Edge of Disaster

“Hope is gone. The future is terrifying.”

Those were the sentiments of D.V. from Modesto, CA, concerning her and her husband’s job situation. She was an eligibility case manager and he was a company representative; both were laid off in 2009. Since then, “My husband and I went from making $150K a year to scraping out (if we're lucky) $24K a year. Don't get me wrong, we are lucky to have even that, but it IS a stark reality to have fallen so far so fast."

Another stark reality is the fact that the jobs market has stalled and job creation has fallen to its lowest level of 2011. The June 2011 employment report contained plenty of bad news; only 18,000 jobs were created, the unemployment rate increased to 9.2 percent, and hourly wages and hours worked both fell slightly. The job creation revisions for April and May were both to the downside. 

Long-term unemployment remained at historically elevated levels as those out of work for more than 52 weeks increased by 34,000 from a year earlier to 4,364,000, or 30.3 percent of all unemployed. A large part of that 4,364,000 includes 2,039,000 unemployed who have been out of work for 99 weeks or longer, an increase of 105,000 from the previous month. This is the first time since the 99-week statistic has been tracked by the BLS that it has exceeded the two million mark.

Ninety-niner (exhausted all unemployment benefits) Brenda McFadden, was a corporate travel consultant for more than 20 years, but she's finding that the job market can be unforgiving. Has she seen job market improvements? “Not at all. My state is still over 10% (unemployment). It frustrates me to see the US throwing money we don't have to outside entities, i.e. funding wars and uprisings etc. and yet there are no funds to continue support of the Long Term unemployed during this monumental economic downturn (supporting them would be good for the economy in that they turn around and spend it not hoard it). 99ers especially, are ignored and forgotten and are being swept under the national rug.”

While unemployment is at historically high levels considering the economy is supposed to be in recovery mode, the tragedy of long-term unemployment is especially troublesome. The longer a person remains jobless the more difficult it is to find new work. Many prospective employers often disparage the long-term unemployed for being lazy, having out-of-date skills and not having the confidence to step into a new position.

“And on top of that some companies -- including PMG Indiana, Sony Ericsson and retailers nationwide -- have explicitly barred the unemployed or long-term unemployed from certain job openings, outright telling them in job ads that they need not apply.

D.V. from Modesto feels the sting of long-term job rejection, “Unemployment is still above 18% locally and I still don't even get returned phone calls for minimum-wage jobs.”

The jobs crisis can be especially difficult for older workers. “At the present age of 64 and having been out of work for the last 1 3/4 years, I do a lot less, eat much less, get a special discount at the YMCA, shop on senior discount days, walk a lot more, try to combine trips to avoid using too much fuel,” writes Thomas Rainey of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. “The job market for seniors has always been rather bleak; it seems it has really gotten a lot worse in these last few years.”

Brenda McFadden believes that new laws need to be put in place discouraging discriminatory practices that affect the long-term unemployed. “I would like to see strong legislation and penalties to employers who practice discrimination, age related or employment status, and also see relaxed credit reviews when looking at the unemployed for hire because what may have been good or great credit once may be no longer...doesn't mean they won't make a good employee.”