The United States labor market has been in a downfall since the financial collapse a few years ago. Despite the Obama administration claiming that it has improved, the fact is is that millions of Americans – young, middle-aged and old – can’t find work, and many are suffering from chronic unemployment.
A new study released Monday by Rutgers University entitled “Left Behind: The Long-term Unemployed Struggle in an Improving Economy” found that more than 20 percent of workers who have been laid off in the last five years still haven’t found new positions of employment.
Among those who have been laid off in that same time frame, 46 percent said they suffered a pay cut and 44 percent reported a drop in status. One in three unemployed survey participants have been looking for a job for more than seven months.
This is a signal of how hard it is to find work in the U.S. today.
Furthermore, unemployed Americans are pessimistic about the state of the job market and economy.
According to the survey of 1,153 Americans, more than one-third (36 percent) say the economy never fully recovered from the recession, while 40 percent believe the abundance of good jobs will never fully return to pre-recession levels.
Earlier this year, economists at Princeton University published a paper entitled “Are the Long-Term Unemployed on the Margins of the Labor Market?” in which it presented the case that long-term joblessness is the biggest issue facing the U.S. today.
The paper essentially argued that the long-term unemployed, which is defined as those who have been out of work for a minimum of six months, face tremendous pain in the long-term because of discouragement and discrimination by hiring managers.
“The longer people are unemployed, the more challenges they face,” Alan Krueger, a former top economist for President Barack Obama told CNBC (via PFHub). “Employers are less likely to call them in for interviews. They grow discouraged. Their skills grow obsolete. They become more isolated, more disengaged.”
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