Among the missing are teenagers who have stopped looking for mall jobs that are now going to college graduates, and laid-off 60-year-olds who have reluctantly retired as employers turned to younger, cheaper talent. Some are at home, supported by spouses. Others are in college or training programs, hoping to gain marketable skills. A few have ended up homeless.
Despite the steady decline in unemployment recently, the study is a reminder of how far the economy has to go. The Labor Department reported Friday that the official unemployment rate slipped to 8.3 percent in January, but when labor force dropouts and the underemployed - those working part time because they can’t find full-time jobs - are included, the rate doubles to about 17 percent.
Losing the productivity of more than 5 million people over the past three years means a slower recovery, with fewer people contributing to the nation’s economic output, buying products, and paying taxes, said Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies. These missing workers are more likely to become poor, rely on government assistance, and develop mental health issues.
And when hiring picks up, many of these long-term unemployed will have lost so many skills and so much work experience that they won’t easily reenter the labor market. “Their difficulties will end up being paid in part by us,’’ Sum said.
Barbara Bobea, laid off from a human resources job two years ago, spends her afternoons trying to get a bed at the Pine Street Inn homeless shelter. After her jobless benefits ran out last summer, she had no other choice.
Bobea, 43, has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Alaska in Anchorage. But with no money to buy minutes for her cellphone, restrictions on when she can shower and iron at the shelter, and no place to hang her crumpled interview clothes, it became difficult for her to pursue the human resources and bookkeeping jobs that fit her credentials.
She lowered her sights and applied at McDonald’s, but never heard back. In November, she stopped trying.
