How long have you been unemployed as a citizen in America?

21 comments

1. 17 years

2. I think the longest I’ve been unemployed was roughly 17 months, from May 2012 to October 2013. I’d just finished college and the job market wasn’t great so finding a job wasn’t easy. I was able to stay with my parents during this time so it wasn’t all that bad.

3. Average is about 20 weeks to find new work.

   https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t12.htm

4. 3 months, but that was by choice between jobs.

5. Most unemployment in the US is considered voluntary unemployment right now. There are more open jobs than there are applicants, but those jobs may pay far less than the job a person previously held.

   This isn’t an absolute. You may live in an area with few options, which would lead you to go without a job for a longer time period.

   Unemployment benefits have a limit on how long they last. The average time period a person goes without a job at present is 20 weeks, but 19.4% have been looking for longer than 27 weeks.

6. Longest period was about 3 months

7. Never more then 2ish weeks

   I mentally can’t handle not having a job

8. Took me 3 months to find my first real job out of college, though I had some side gigs during that.

   Since then, the longest stretch I’ve had between jobs was 2 weeks.

9. I got my first job at 14. Since then the longest I’ve ever been without a job was about 3 weeks when I moved from my hometown at 18 to college about 500 miles away.

   I could have found a job faster if I wanted but I was moving and settling in and such.

   I got laid off in 2008 but I saw it coming about a month ahead of time so I had already had a few interviews before it happened. I actually got laid off from my old job and the offer for my new job the same day.

   Aside from that 3 weeks and few hours in 2008 I’ve never been unemployed since 14. I’ve take a few weeks off by choice when switching jobs but that was just a vacation between jobs I wanted to take.

10. A bit over a year when I quit and went back to college. Since graduating and getting a big boy job, longest stretch was 4 months. I did turn down offers that required relocation though.

11. Between the time I graduated college to when I landed my first full-time job, it took me almost a year and a half. This was back in 2014-2015. I don’t know if it’s normal for college grads to take so long in finding a job, but I didn’t really have any experience and I was primarily working on job applications in different locations. so there’s that.

12. For 9 hours(I quit my job today)

13. A couple of weeks but unemployment lasts up to 27 weeks!

14. I’ve been luck enough (knock on wood) to have only NOT had a job during the times I was a full time student.

    Sure was there one year I HATED my job and was underemployed? Ya – but I was employed.

15. Since finishing college, the longest was maybe 2 or 3 months after my child was born. It was 5 months before I went back to full-time, but I signed up with a temp agency before that and had a couple of one-week gigs.

16. I think the longest for me was less than a year but that was due to leaving the medical field funny enough as soon as the pandemic hit to go back to college.

17. From the time I was born until I was around 14 1/2 years old. I’m now pushing 34, granted I’ve only held 4 jobs in that time, so it’s not like I’m bouncing around with nothing lined up.

18. 17 years and 11 months roughly. This will probably be ending this year though.

19. The longest I ever was out of work was about two months, give of take.

20. Most time I’ve spent unemployed is like a year.

21. For the most part no. Especially in our current economy, if one cannot find a interview after 3 months of searching then they are doing something wrong and need to adjust. Something wrong is very broad. It could be they’re too picky on the job they want, their resume sucks, their interviewing skills aren’t the best, their industry is gone, or etc. Main point is that once you reach that stage you need to relook at yourself and adapt. Getting interviews are the hardest part but once you get the interview getting a job comes fairly soon. Anecdotally about a month after you start getting a stream of interviews. The US does not have a situation like most other countries where unemployment is the systems fault rather than the individual. I can’t speak for South Africa but its fairly common in my Asian homeland to be unemployed for years because of bullshit gatekeeping and discrimination. You being qualified is unimportant.