The GOP should read this before trying to kill unemployment insurance extensions.
Now hard data disagrees. Consider this first chart.
Those different colored lines represent different groups, or "cohorts," in the study. As you can see, in every group surveyed, as unemployment endures the time spent searching for a job drops drastically. This is due in large part to the fact that people looking for work—and not finding it—get discouraged and stop trying. (By the way, if you're curious about why all the groups start at around the same level regardless of how long they've been unemployed for, check out the study itself—so are the authors.)
Which leads us to this second chart.
One thing not making it any easier on the unemployed is that more and more job applicants are finding that their unemployment actually counts against them in the hiring process. This from a June 2010 CNNMoney.com article:
Some job postings include restrictions such as "unemployed candidates will not be considered" or "must be currently employed." Those explicit limitations have occasionally been removed from listings when an employer or recruiter is questioned by the media though.
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