New research shows that when people have been unemployed for more than six months then employers simply won’t look at them as potential hires. Thus six months of unemployment risks turning into permanent unemployment. This is indeed a problem but one problem with the finding is that it simply isn’t new. It’s been well known over in Europe for decades now. And what it does mean is that the US is going to have to start looking at what Europe has been doing about this very problem.
There’s a piece on the new research at the Atlantic and also by Brad Plumer at Washington Post.
"Here’s one big reason why America’s unemployment crisis may be here to stay. Thanks to the lasting effects of the recession, there are currently 4.7 million workers who have been out of work for at least 27 weeks. And new research suggests that employers will almost never consider hiring them.
…. Now, it’s unclear whether companies are irrationally discriminating against the long-term unemployed or whether they have good reason for screening out these applicants. Privately, many employers worry that someone who’s been out of work for six months “may have outdated skills, or may be a short-timer who is desperate enough to take any work now but will leave when something better comes along.”
Either way, the broader trend is having disastrous effects. As my colleague Ylan Mui reported earlier, this is partly why Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren worries that our cyclical unemployment problems could become structural and long-lasting. The recession threw many people out of work. Those who stayed unemployed for six months or more can’t even get a callback for jobs. Their skills erode further. Eventually they drop out of the labor force. That all weighs down on America’s long-term growth prospects."
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
