Posted on 01/21/2008 7:59:33 AM PST by xtinct
An unusually large share of workers have been out a job for more than six months even as overall unemployment has remained low, a little-noted weakness in the labor market that analysts said threatens to intensify the impact of the unfolding economic downturn.
In November, nearly 1.4 million people -- almost one in five of those unemployed -- had been jobless for at least 27 weeks, the juncture when unemployment insurance benefits end for most recipients. That is about twice the level of long-term unemployment before the 2001 recession.
The problem is ensnaring a broader swath of workers than before. Once concentrated among manufacturing workers and those with little work history, education or skills, long-term unemployment is growing most rapidly among white-collar and college-educated workers with long work experience, studies have found, making the problem difficult for policymakers to address even as it grows more urgent.
"What has happened is a polarization of the labor market. It was very strong at the very top and very strong until recently at the bottom," said Lawrence F. Katz, a labor economist at Harvard University. "But in the recent weak recovery, and now recession, demand has been very weak" for jobs in the middle.
Caroline Dixon never contemplated any of that when she resigned in April after nine months as a program officer with the Spina Bifida Association. She left because the job was "a bad fit," and she said she was confident that the economy was strong and she would soon find work. For a long time, she never stopped in the unemployment office on Naylor Road near her Southeast Washington home.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Caroline's statement screams * discinplinary issues. * I hope she's not using that excuse with prospective employers. And, at her age 41, she never should have left her job without having a job to go to. Unfortunately, that's a reality for people over 40 who lose their jobs.
Both of the people depicted in this story need to take * a job * * any job * in their field and work their way up to better jobs, e.g. get a job and on the day they start said job put out resumes.
It's much easier to get a job if you have a job.
Not very good planning skills...
most of the people losing their jobs are wall streeters. wapo would rather pave the streets with their carcasses (and cite them as statistics when convenient).
The flip side of that is if I'm an employer and I get even a whiff of that idea going through a potential employee's head I have only two options. 1. Hire and put him into a short term, no career advancement position with the expectation that he'll leave with little or no notice. 2. Just hire someone else.
Probably a lot of ‘web-designers’ out of luck who thought it looked like a good field to get into in 2000.
“Bad fit.” Sounds like attitude.
I don’t see much mention of her work ‘skills’ either.
So just because she has a degree, she is supposed to be a skilled worker?
When I hear “highly skilled and out of work” I think nuclear engineer, not an office worker in a non-profit company.
“feminist studies” not very marketable.
someone with a degree like that screams “DO NOT HIRE”
I thought that ship sailed about three years ago.
Let's see...Construction workers were first,then the mortgage office folks, then the wall streeters (banking and fund managers)......soon, retail, manufacturing, and then the service sector workers. Never fear we can spend our way out of this mess again, just like before. Ask Hitlery and Obama and Edwards.
Nothing wrong with looking for a better job but you don’t quit the one you have until that better one is in your pocket, it’s just common sense.
Anyone who quits a job before having another one lined up runs the risk of (re)discovering just how marketable they REALLY are -- the hard way.
Oh, so you'ra a "coulda woulda shoulda" kind of commentary. Me? I avoid those words. They are useless or worse: poison.
Bear up to the consequences, sure. But life is too short to waste a minute of it!
Bump
The best time to look for a job is when you have a job. This woman shouldn’t have quit her “bad fit” job until she had accepted another offer.
Those of that have lived through the Carter Years have often wondered what would happen to these self-proffessed Wonderkind when they actually had to LOOK for a job....
When I graduated college, only the top 10% got an INTERVIEW, let alone an offer...
In the late 90’s, If you didn’t have at least ten different offers, you were “lazy”....
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