Happy Days Are Here Again
by digby
Well, not really. If you’re unemployed anyway:
A disturbing new survey from Rutgers University explores the damage in stark terms. Titled “No End in Sight: The Agony of Prolonged Unemployment,” it finds that recent economic growth “has done little to reach millions of skilled workers still adrift in the most severe period of prolonged joblessness in decades.” The details are grim. The survey finds that eight in 10 people who lost jobs in the recession have yet to find new employment. Most of those who have found work have taken pay cuts and/or lost benefits; six in 10 of them say it’s not the job they wanted, but one they took simply to make ends meet. But it’s toughest for those still out. The share of job-seekers who’ve spent more than seven months looking for work has jumped from 48 percent last August to 70 percent today, Rutgers finds. Consider the impacts: – Ninety percent of the unemployed rate their financial situation negatively. Seventy percent are spending money they’d saved for retirement, more than half have borrowed from friends and nearly as many have run up credit card debt. -Four in 10 have skipped medical care, as many have sold personal possessions to make ends meet, nearly a third are using food stamps and one in five reports using a food pantry. A fifth have had to move their home; as many are bunking with family or friends. -In personal responses, 70 percent are under stress, 60 percent report depression, half anxiety and 40 percent helplessness and anger. One in 10 has sought professional help with the emotional fallout. The report, from Rutgers’ John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, puts other data into perspective, including our weekly ABC News Consumer Comfort Index, which despite signs of economic growth – and somewhat less-pessimistic expectations for the future – remains near its record low in 24 years of weekly polling. In our latest CCI results 91 percent of Americans rated the economy negatively, 76 percent called it a bad time to spend money and 56 percent rated said their own finances were hurting – all signs of the painful impacts of the broad, long-term unemployment explored in the Rutgers study out today.
That makes this an especially good time to tell everyone they need to start sacrificing and suffering. See, the stock market’s doing well and everyone who’s anyone is fed up with all this whining from people who refuse to get non-existent jobs:
“You can’t go on forever,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, of Montana, whose panel oversees the benefits program. “I think 99 weeks is sufficient,” he said. “There’s just been no discussion to go beyond that,” said Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat.
Yes, 99 weeks would be sufficient — if the unemployment rate wasn’t sky high. What the hell are these people supposed to do? Emigrate?
If you have the stomach to read the Rutgers study, do it. This has long term repercussions on our economy and our culture and none of them are good. The loss of wealth from the housing and stock market crashes two years ago, combined with long term unemployment for a large number of Americans has changed the future expectations of all of us. The ruling class needn’t worry, of course. They are quite comfy and can’t figure out what the fuss is all about. (“Why don’t these lazy unemployed people just put together a decent portfolio, for crying out loud?”) But everyone who isn’t one of the chosen few, even those who kept their jobs throughout, have been changed by this to one degree or another. Everyone’s expectations have ben challenged and some have had their dreams completely derailed.
It’s a problem that’s going to long outlast the great recession.
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