Stigma Of Long-Term Unemployment Boosts Jobless Rate: CBO

By Arthur Delaney, The Huffington Post
February 17, 2012
Stigma Of Long-Term Unemployment Boosts Jobless Rate: CBO
WASHINGTON -- The stigma of long-term unemployment is so bad that it actually contributes to a higher national unemployment rate, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office.

As workers sit idle for months and years, their skills deteriorate and the very fact of their joblessness makes them even less employable. The CBO estimates that stigma and skill-erosion combined have boosted the unemployment rate by a quarter of a percentage point since the start of the recession in December 2007 -- and that the jobless rate will be half a percentage point higher for the next several years.

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