Long-Term Unemployment Hits Many, Hits Hard

By Ann Belser, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Sept. 28--Jim Williams never thought he would ever be out of a job this long.

The 56-year-old McCandless resident is a computer and information systems manager with a skill set in designing and implementing software that should guarantee employment.

Yet 17 months after losing his job as a principal product manager in the storage management suite for CA Technologies, Mr. Williams is still out of work.

It's not because he is sitting on the couch. He has made it his job for the past 17 months to work full-time on getting work.

But like 3 million Americans, Mr. Williams' job search continues after being out of work for year and a half.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in its most recent report on unemployment said the average duration of unemployment in August was 31.7 weeks, or nearly a month and a half longer than the 26 weeks that federal unemployment compensation is available. And nearly a third of the people currently unemployed have been so for more than six months.

In the 66 years that the federal government has been keeping employment statistics, there have never been so many people -- either as a percentage or just in number -- who have been unemployed for so long as in the years since the end of the Great Recession.

Typically, unemployment benefits are available to people who have been laid off for 26 weeks, but in times of economic distress such as the Great Recession or even in the recessions of the previous two decades, Congress will authorize extensions. In the aftermath of the recession, unemployment insurance was available up to 99 weeks, which later fell in Pennsylvania to 73 weeks.

But the authorization enabling unemployment compensation to be extended expired in December 2013.

With that, 1.3 million people who had been receiving extended unemployment insurance nationally were immediately cut off. During the first eight months of 2014, another 2.1 million reached six months of unemployment compensation and had their benefits stopped, according to figures gathered by the National Employment Law Project in New York City.

A report from the Economic Policy Institute released Thursday noted the percentage of unemployed people receiving unemployment insurance benefits has dropped to 25.9 percent, the lowest level since 1987.

That translates to about 7.1 million people who are unemployed, but not receiving benefits. Those ranks include people who are long-term unemployed, as well as those who just entered the workforce and would not be eligible for benefits, plus those who quit their jobs and are therefore not eligible.

The Washington, D.C.-based policy group also calculated that, based on the latest unemployment numbers and the job turnover report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are currently 2.1 job seekers for every job opening.

A study of the long-term unemployed by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University showed the long, slow recovery has devastated many who lost jobs, especially because "many of the jobs lost during the Great Recession were high- and middle-wage jobs, while most of the recovery's employment growth has been in low-wage occupations."

The study found 20 percent of workers, or nearly 30 million people, have been laid off from a job in the last five years. Of that group, 39 percent reported that they searched for a job for more than seven months before finding a job. Another 22 percent said they have not found a new job.

"According to the survey, the loss of a job and diminished finances took both an emotional and financial toll," the Rutgers study said. "More than six in 10 unemployed say they experienced stress in family relationships and close friendships during their time without a job."

The Career Development Center in Squirrel Hill is now serving 1,200 job seekers a year, up from 600 in 2006.

The center, a part of the Jewish Family & Children's Service of Pittsburgh that was founded in 1984, provides career counseling and arranges job fairs for people who have lost their jobs, those just starting their careers, and adults looking for career changes. It also hosts workshops on franchising, networking, writing resumes and cover letters and mastering use of LinkedIn, the professionally-centered social network.

"These people are very qualified people. They have great credentials, great experience and degrees," said George R. Ponticello, a career consultant at the Squirrel Hill center.

"People want to be working. They don't want to be collecting unemployment," Mr. Ponticello said.

"It's never been more difficult to find a job," said Patrick Ferraro, an employer relations consultant at the Career Development Center. He said it takes three times as much work to get an interview as it used to, and there is a cyber wall set up between employers who post job notices and job seekers who respond.

Mostly what job seekers hear from prospective employers is nothing. If they don't get an interview, they don't get a response to their application; and if they do get an interview and don't get the job, mostly they are never formally rejected.

Mr. Williams, who is living off his savings, has tried hard to penetrate that wall.

Following his career coach's advice, he looks for possible connections to each employer on LinkedIn; he calls friends who might know someone who knows someone; and he goes to career fairs to meet prospective employers.

It's hard to remain positive. He maintains a spreadsheet of jobs for which he has applied and the responses received.

The documentation shows more than 150 networking meetings and more than 500 job applications. He even came close to landing a couple.

Looking for a job is not the hardest part, he said.

It's that he is not working. "You might as well cut my chest open and rip my heart out," he said.

Mr. Williams has lowered his salary expectations well below what he had been making and is widening his search beyond the Pittsburgh region where he has lived all of his life. He is trying to keep his spirits up by attending networking meetings, exercising with his wife of 36 years (he has lost 25 pounds) and attending Bible study.

"What this year and a half has done for me is to show how valuable it is to have a relationship at home; how valuable it is to walk in the park; and how valuable it is to play golf," he said. "I don't need the big money or the big job and big title.

"I never thought it would take this long to find a job," Mr. Williams said. "In the past, I would have an interview and a job offer would be presented within 24 hours."

Ann Belser: [email protected] or 412-263-1699.

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