The long-term unemployed: The ravages of time

One might expect unemployment to carry less stigma after a deep recession—bad times, rather than personal shortcoming, being the more likely reason for a sacking. Yet a worker’s lifetime earnings are hurt more by a job loss in a weak economy. An experienced worker laid off when unemployment is at 9% faces a reduction in lifetime earnings nearly twice that of someone sacked when the rate is 5%: a loss of 20% on average, writes The Economist.