A job market unlike any we've known

 

The item in the report that brought back the point was this: Starting with this month's unemployment report, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will start collecting statistics on the number of people unemployed for up to five years.

 

Up until now, the government did not bother making distinctions among long-term unemployed Americans once they had been out of work for two years. But, as stories in the media and tales I'm sure you've heard a friend or acquaintance tell should make clear, there are now a good number of people who have been out of work for more than two years and are still looking. The "99ers" - the people who have exhausted all available unemployment compensation benefits - fall into this category once they've been unemployed for five weeks past the end of benefits. So do many of the 60 individuals Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Jane Von Bergen has been profiling in her series on people who have been looking for work for a while.

 

It is worth noting that not all the long-term unemployed come from low-skill jobs or jobs requiring little education. For instance, one of the most visible "99ers," Gregg Rosen of the American 99ers Union, is a college graduate who earned a six-figure salary as a marketing executive before losing his job three years ago, and three-fifths of the unemployed Philadelphians Von Bergen has featured on her blog are college graduates, including several with advanced degrees.

 

There are also a good number of managers and executives in this group, including bank vice presidents, business development specialists, human resources and communications managers and more.

 

In other words, this unemployment recession is unusually broad and deep -- broader and deeper than any since the Great Depression. The downside of this is that the competition is fierce for the available positions. The upside? Knowing that whatever your particular station may be in the ranks of the unemployed and underemployed right now, you are far from alone.

 

 

By Sandy Smith

 

Sandy Smith has been blogging for FinancialJobBank.com since 2010. In addition to launching award-winning newspapers and newsletters at the University of Pennsylvania and Widener University, Sandy is a veteran writer whose articles and essays have appeared in several local and regional media outlets, including The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia CityPaper, and PGN, and on several Web sites. He is also an active participant on several discussion boards, including PhiladelphiaSpeaks.com, where he posts as “MarketStEl.” He has been supporting himself through a combination of freelance and part-time work and unemployment compensation since early 2009 and is himself an active job-seeker. Read more of his posts on FinancialJobBankBlog.com and follow him to Nexxt for more job opportunities.