by Amelia Love

Created on: December 18, 2010   Last Updated: December 25, 2010

21st Century Leper

Suicide hotlines are listed at the top of a popular support website for the unemployed. Readers who sift through the postings will discover one devastating story after another about uselessness, worthlessness, the desperate feeling of no purpose. People who have never felt this sharp rejection are quick to judge, determining that the unemployed are in their situations through fault of their own. In fact, many companies submit job postings with the statement "Unemployed need not apply."

These companies believe that the only people who could be assets are the ones who already have a job. Those who don't, they decide, must not be worthy for one reason or another. Once the company receives criticism for this statement, it immediately removes it with explanations that the statement was, of course, a mistake. Everyone knows it wasn't, just as they know that the unemployed will not be considered within this company, nor will they be considered within many other companies who, although more savvy in political correctness, are prone to the exact same prejudices and judgments.

Little wonder that many people who have been unemployed wonder if they should call out "Unclean! Unclean!" when they submit an application.

Who are the unemployed? In this devastating recession, you might be surprised. Many are recent college graduates. Top of their class, wide-eyed and excited, they are bludgeoned with one rejection after another. Some purposefully focused on what they believed were areas of need, such as teaching. When they entered the work force, they discovered the shortages no longer existed. In one school district, for example, over 400 certified teachers are on the substitute list, unable to find a job in their field. Many are certified in Math, Science, and Special Education, areas that once were in need. Once these college graduates began searching for employment, they discovered that the jobs were not there.

Many others are baby boomers; experienced, highly trained employees who were laid off because their employers decided they could hire a less experienced person and save money. Now they cannot find work due to the unspoken but well-known age prejudice. Many have never been unemployed before. Their careers have been their lifelong identity. Stripped of this identity, they now desperately search for purpose.

Contrary to popular stigmatism, the unemployed are often worthy, skilled individuals who are striving diligently to find jobs or new careers.

And they

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