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Article: Unemployment tougher than 1980s peak: ; Rising debt, poor saving habits make joblessness harder
- Article from:
- Sunday Gazette-Mail
- Article date:
- November 8, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2009 Sunday Gazette-Mail. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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WASHINGTON - It hurts more to be unemployed now than the last
time the jobless rate hit 10 percent.
Americans have more than triple the debt they had in 1982, and
less than half the savings. They spend 10 weeks longer off the job.
And a bigger share of them have no health insurance.
For these reasons, the unemployed are more vulnerable today to
foreclosure and bankruptcy than they were a generation ago.
Donald Schenk knows. He's been without work both times. It's
worse now, he says.
Back in the early 1980s, when Schenk lost his job at a phone
company, he was able to find several temporary jobs - including one
testing pinball machines - to make ends meet until he landed full-
time work ...