True confession, I am one of the long-term unemployed. Like many, I have tried to cover up my true circumstances by creating a ¨consulting company¨ and telling bullshit stories about the benefits of working from home. I have gone through a succession of ¨opportunites¨ where the only compensation is a percentage of what you sell but the sad reality is that I haven’t cashed a check for three years.
I am lucky enough to still have savings and a wife who has a job. I have tried to keep active by volunteering in the community and participating in the sometimes messy but always stimulating online community that is DailyKos. Make no mistake though; I am in a constant battle against depression, despair and thoughts of suicide.
I’ll stop the personal sob story here but please join me after the jump for a look at why I am not alone in my misery.
Last week Christine Owens, Executive Director of the National Employment Law Project appeared before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and testified that the jobless in America are being discriminated against because employers are not considering applicants who are not transferring out of a paying job into a new one.
In an NELP press release , Owens said, "There is a disturbing and growing trend among employers and staffing firms to refuse to even consider the unemployed for available job openings, regardless of their qualifications.
According to the US Department of Labor 13.9 million people were out of work in January, 2011. That means there are, on average almost 5 people competing for each available job. In a healthy economy, economists say the ratio would fall to roughly 2.
At the same time the top Republican issue in Washington is to increase budget cuts from $40 billion to $100 billion which, according to Scott Lilly of the Center for American Progress, would lead to the loss of 650,000 government jobs and the indirect loss of 325,000 additional jobs.
Welcome to the New Normal. Millions of Americans lost their jobs in an economic collapse authored by the country’s financial and political elite. The same elites are now pushing an agenda that would cause more job loss and create a permanent underclass whose unemployed status becomes a ¨pre-existing condition¨ which disqualifies them from being re-hired. Is it any wonder the Robert Freeman of Common Dreams titled his most recent essay ¨ When A Country Goes Insane ¨?
This is also the environment that inspired Bob Herbert’s New York Times column ¨ At Grave Risk ¨ which highlighted a letter of despair sent by a 41-year-old constituent to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
The letter echoes my own thoughts. “I am financially ruined. I find myself depressed and demoralized and my confidence is shattered. Worst of all, as I hear more and more talk about deficit reduction and further layoffs, I have the agonizing feeling that the worst may not be behind us.”
Sanders’ constituent’s fears are not unfounded. The NELP release states that there are 2.2 million fewer jobs overall today than ten years ago, despite the fact that the working-age population has grown by almost 10 million; the economy would need to add roughly 11 million jobs just to return to employment levels at the start of the recession. NELP also estimates that throughout 2010, 3.9 million unemployed workers exhausted all of their unemployment benefits without finding new work.
Take a second to think about those numbers... 2.2 million fewer jobs and 10 million more people looking for work.
I felt compelled to write this diary because I was shocked by the NELP findings on systematic employer discrimination against the chronically unemployed. At the same time I would be remiss if I did not also share a growing sense of optimism sparked by the recent events in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana. My hope is that these protests and, in some small way, this diary will lead to greater awareness that the current US imbalance between the haves and have-nots is not sustainable.
Something must be done and if there is a leader out there planning organized (but non-violent) action against the elites that are responsible for this misery, please let me know. After all, I do have time on my hands.
Peace.
Updated by abe57 at Tue Feb 22, 2011, 03:02:13 PM
Thanks to everyone who has been kind enough to offer a comment to a diary that has become a spontaneous support group for unemployed and underemployed Kossacks. Thanks also to the DK4 gremlin who queued this diary for the Community Spotlight. Together we have made the Rec List, a first for me.