Tag Archives: unemployment

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.