Long-term unemployment is becoming ‘a status quo’ in today’s job market: It’s a ‘mental war,’ job seeker says
Tequila Turner's last steady paycheck arrived in October 2024. Since then, the 47-year-old Kansas City resident has swapped her corporate IT career for freelance gigs and DoorDash deliveries. Her income dropped from six figures to a fraction of that amount. She moved in with friends to cut costs. And despite relentless job searching, meaningful opportunities remain elusive.
Turner is among 1.8 million Americans classified as "long-term unemployed"—those actively seeking work for six months or longer. While headline unemployment sits at a relatively stable 4.3%, the share of people stuck in prolonged joblessness has been climbing for three consecutive years, defying historical patterns where long-term unemployment typically falls as economies recover.
A Shifting Labor Landscape
Official data paints a mixed picture. January showed stronger-than-expected job growth, with healthcare leading gains. Yet beneath the surface, warning signs accumulate:
- Job openings, hiring rates, and voluntary quits have declined since the 2022 post-pandemic hiring surge
- U.S. employers added just 181,000 jobs across all of 2025, compared to 1.46 million in 2024
- Businesses announced over 108,000 layoffs in January alone
- As of December, roughly 1 million more people were seeking work than the available positions existed
"We're in a moment of labor market stagnation," says Nicole Bachaud, a labor economist at ZipRecruiter. "Unlike after the 2008 crisis or pandemic, workers aren't moving between jobs—they're staying put. Unemployment is becoming a status quo rather than a temporary setback."
For those affected, the psychological toll is real. Many report eroded confidence, financial strain, and the humbling reality of exhausting unemployment benefits, which typically replace less than 40% of prior income.
The Entry-Level Squeeze
Young professionals face particular headwinds. Chris Fong, 25, assumed his top-tier university degree and Bay Area location would cushion his job search after a March 2025 startup layoff. Instead, he's encountered a 35% drop in entry-level postings since early 2023, lengthier interview processes (one role required eight rounds), and competition from more experienced candidates.
Living on savings and working a minimum-wage side job at a friend's equipment rental company, Fong recently began documenting his journey on Instagram. "I was tired of letting recruiters judge me based on a resume," he says. "I decided to tell my own story."
International graduates face added uncertainty. Sakshi Patel, 22, earned her master's in financial management in May 2025 but must secure visa-sponsored employment by spring to remain in the U.S. She submits 30–40 tailored applications weekly with little response, worried that proposed policy changes—including a rumored $100,000 H-1B application fee—could further deter employers.
"Long-term unemployment is still framed as a personal failure," Patel observes. "But increasingly, it's a structural issue. People are doing everything right and still not getting hired."
From In-Demand to Overlooked
Even experienced professionals aren't immune. Myriam Samake, 27, landed her first multimedia journalism role in 2023 through a direct LinkedIn outreach. When that contract ended in June 2025, she began tracking applications in a spreadsheet: 150+ submissions, two final-round interviews, zero offers.
"It's reached the point where if I got an offer today, I'd take it immediately," she says. "I don't know if we can afford to be picky anymore."
Samake wonders whether she must compromise on salary, location, or values—like working for diverse, inclusive organizations—to get hired. Her frustration echoes a broader trend: more workers are accepting lateral moves or pay cuts, and fewer report landing their "dream job," per ZipRecruiter's late-2025 data.
Greg Roth, 52, an executive communications professional in Washington, D.C., recalls securing two competing offers in 2022. After joining Thumbtack that June, he was laid off six months later. Since resuming his search in 2024, interviews have grown scarce.
"In a short time, I went from feeling in-demand to completely ignored," Roth says. "My skills haven't changed. The market has."
The Human Cost Beyond the Resume
Andrew Bohan lost his paralegal position in August 2024, exhausted his unemployment benefits by March 2025, and relocated from Chicago to Baltimore in early 2026 to live with family. For him, the hardest part isn't rejection—it's answering the simple question, "How's the job search going?"
"I like to tell people: being unemployed isn't the problem. Keeping your head screwed on is," he says. He feels pressure to "prove" he's being proactive, even without interviews or offers to show for it.
Research confirms the stakes: job loss correlates with declines in mental and physical health, social isolation, and long-term earnings reductions of 5–15% compared to peers who remained employed.
Yet Bohan stays focused on small, actionable steps: rest, routine, and readiness. "I don't like being idle," he says. "I want to get back in the game."
"We Want to Do the Work"
Turner, the former risk management professional now delivering meals in Kansas City, emphasizes self-care and community. She wishes others understood that long-term unemployment isn't a choice.
"These are people who've provided for themselves and their families their entire lives," she says. "It's new to us. We have valuable skills. We just need the opportunity to show them. We want to do the work."
As the labor market recalibrates, the stories of Turner, Fong, Patel, Samake, Roth, and Bohan underscore a critical truth: in today's hiring environment, persistence alone isn't always enough. Addressing long-term unemployment may require rethinking not just how people search for jobs, but how employers evaluate talent, how policies support transitions, and how society frames the experience of being out of work.
Until then, millions continue to navigate the gap between effort and opportunity—hoping the next application, the next interview, the next break will finally close it.