I came across this article and it spoke about the relationship between stigmas associated with people who are unemployed. I found it very interesting that unemployment was a stigma. People who have recently been unemployed due to this downward economy are being put in a category and are unable to find jobs. They are faced with the unemployment stigma and employers are not hiring them. Even someone with 15 years experience in one company are being overlooked at because employers are labeling them as lazy and unable to get back into the job market.
I think this is ridiculous but I have had some friends and family who have lost their jobs due to getting laid off and are unable to get a job. One of my friends was working for a company for over 8 years and was unfortunately laid off; she cant even get a job at Starbucks because they feel she is overqualified. At first I didnt understand how that is a bad thing, having 8 years experience, but then I realized that they probably think she was only going to work at Starbucks for the time being until she gets a better corporate job. To an extent this makes sense but I think everyone knows the thousands of people who have been laid off and its not fair. These people who have lost their jobs have not done anything wrong yet they are being labeled and stigmatized as lazy or overqualified. To have lazy people and overqualified people in the same category is absurd. I think everyone needs to be given a chance to get back into the job market and this really should be illegal. I find it fascinating that it is illegal to discriminate against age, race, and sex but its not discrimination for not employing the unemployed.
Hey when I was doing some research about stigma I found an article basically saying the same thing. The article is called “Unemployment Stigma Hinders Job Seekers” by Traci Pedersen – I cant figure out how to leave a hyperlink when replying but the link is
http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/04/04/unemployment-stigma-hinders-job-seekers/24962.html
It basically just supports the same concept your article has about how unemployed people are now being discriminated against when looking for a job. In this article, they say they have conducted one of the first studies to examine the psychological stigma of unemployment. In this study they found that people are tending to make negative associations with people who are unemployed and that the reason of their unemployment didn’t matter very much either. They say that economists have found that the longer someone goes being unemployed, the worse their chances of finding a job! They actually gave the same resume to different participants and the ones who were perceived as “unemployed” actually promoted perceptions of incompetency. This fits in perfectly with Goffmans theory on stigma, as he defines it as “an attribute that is deeply discrediting”. And from what I got out of it a major characteristic of stigma is that it restricts a person from their ability to be his or her potential, which is exactly what is going on here. The unemployment is now acting as a restriction to the person, and decreasing their chances of actually bettering themselves.
I agree with what you guys are saying and believe students are also victims of the stigma associated with the unemployed. Being a student and searching for a job I have learned that companies label students as incompetent because of luck of experience. Someone not having experience is similar to someone being unemployed and being stigmatized. The link between the two is due to the fact the employers don’t care why someone is unemployed much the same as they don’t care why someone does not have experience. How can you blame someone for being unemployed if his company laid off 30% of its workforce. In addition, how can you blame a student for not having experience if he has been in school for the past 4 years thinking that will help him find a job. The most aggravating thing in regards to this topic is the ignorance and lack of empathy employers have until the day they find themselves in the same situation other unemployed people are. Then they want people to understand and sympathies with them but while prospective employees needed more understanding and sympathy they were no where to be found.
It is definitely a catch 22 once you get into the vicious cycle of being unemployed or lacking experience which no one gives you a chance to attain.