“The long-term unemployed send a silent message that they aren’t really willing to work or are a problem that nobody wants (drugs/alcohol/lazy/abusive...). It may not be true but how is the prospective employer going to know that? “
I say that it is true for most of them. Take 100 people who have been unemployed for 1 month vs. a group of 100 people who have been unemployed for 10 months and I’ll bet 90 out of 100 in the 1 month group will be better employees than all 100 in the 10 month group.
I was unemployed for 12 months and not only am I proud of my skills and work ethic but I am already better at my current job in six months than some other people working there for years.
You may wish to revise your theory.