"A growing number of white-collar workers and other job seekers are so discouraged that they're giving up. Instead of looking for work, they're living off severance or buyout packages, moving back in with Mom and Dad or relying on a spouse's income to get by. They're gray-haired managers who are going back to school and working mothers who are becoming stay-at-home moms after being laid off.
Some disheartened job seekers are making money on e-Bay, selling their poetry or doing odd jobs for neighbors instead of sending out more résumés.
About 4.7 million Americans want jobs but are not looking for work, up from 4.6 million in January of 2003, according to the Department of Labor. There are a variety of reasons they may be unable to look for work. They may be unable to job hunt because they don't have a car or can't find child care.
But some aren't looking because they believe there are no jobs out there: More than 400,000 workers are so discouraged by the job market that they've given up looking for work. More and more workers are jumping out of the game. The January labor force participation rate was 66.1%, up slightly from a 12-year low in December when 66% of working age people were working or seeking work.
While some are trying to develop new skills or make career changes, others are so demoralized that they're doing nothing.
"They're watching soap operas and drinking beer. It's living hell," says Damian Birkel, a career counselor who founded Professionals in Transition Support Group, which holds support meetings for unemployed workers in Winston-Salem and Greensboro, N.C. "The discouraged worker is beaten down by the weight of rejection. Their money is running out, their self-esteem is at an all-time low."
The unemployment rate dipped to 5.6% in January, and December marked the lowest unemployment rate in 14 months. But some economists don't believe the decline is good news. Rather, they say, the rise in discouraged job seekers is what's driving down the jobless rate.
"They've gotten out of the game," says Jared Bernstein, an economist for the Economic Policy Institute. "It's a major factor behind the unemployment rate, which fell not because people found work, but the contrary: They left the labor force because of a perceived lack of jobs."
"
usatoday.com |
