ABC/WaPo: Layoffs Take Heavy Emotional Toll

POLL: Layoffs Take Heavy Emotional Toll
ABC News-Washington Post Poll: 90 Percent of Jobless Are Stressed

ANALYSIS By GARY LANGER
Nov. 22, 2009


When the pink slip comes, trouble follows – financial, but emotional as well.

Three in 10 Americans in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll say they or someone in their household has lost a job in the past year -- a new high. And the impacts can be devastating: Beyond financial hardship, large numbers report anger, stress and depression as a result.

Given the state of the economy – 10.2 percent unemployment, 17.5 percent including those who've given up looking – "surprise" is the least common reaction measured in this survey. Nonetheless, more than half of those who report a layoff in their household, 52 percent, were surprised by it.

Other emotional responses range higher: Nearly all – 90 percent – report personal stress as a result of the layoff. Sixty-two percent, anger. And 58 percent, depression. As percentages of the full population, those compute to 27 percent of all Americans with stress, 19 percent angry and 17 percent suffering depression in response to the loss of a job.

There's also, of course, financial hardship: Among those who've sustained a job loss in the household, 86 percent report money trouble, and 62 percent say it's been serious. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://abcnews.go.com/PollingUnit/Politics/impact-layoffs-abc-news-washington-post-poll/story?id=9137175

because anyone who does, which is most people, knows that ceasing to work means sinking quickly into a World of Hurt.

You know how we all laugh gently at our parents and grandparents who save everything "just in case" the bad times come again...I can see my kids and grandkids snickering at me when, years from now, I tell them stories about my layoff, the "here's a box, be gone by noon" approach to "human resources," that it could happen to them, too.

My husband, 58, was laid off from an auto parts dealership, a job he has done all of his life including owning a store. My daughter in law was laid off from her job. My nephew who is legally blind was laid off in Detroit. The toll is tremendous. There is fear, self-loathing, depression, and a sense of hopelessness. The only thing keeping all of us going is that we are a close family and we help eachother when needed. Sometimes that help is financial, sometimes it is just a listening ear. Because our family and extended family is here my husband and I will stick it out here. I have told the younger ones they might have to consider a move. In my nephews case he owns a home in Detroit and would probably have to abandon it to move.

This is a really bad time, but I know we will make it. There is, in my opinion, no hope of my husband finding work that he knows right now, or possibly ever. We're OK, with few bills and I have a good job, so we will do what we have to. In the younger ones case they will find work, it may not pay as much as they made, but eventually they will find something. Maybe I'm talking myself into that more than being hopeful. This is just a shitty time.