It is becoming even harder for people to land a new job. Even if they are lucky enough to do so people are not as mobile as they once were. The sluggishness in the housing market makes it hard to sell and move to an area with stronger job prospects or after the job has been landed.
For example, Nevada has a surplus of nurses, while NYC and Philadelphia both remain short of them. Never mind the higher costs of living in the shift.
People are also out of work longer than ever before. The current average length of unemployment is now 40 weeks, a new record. The recession of 1982 was half this time frame. The longer someone is idled, the tougher the potential retraining. Even with the heightened emphasis on retraining the unemployed. Those 50 and over still feel that they are being discriminated against. With the high joblessness is expected to last for years, and some folks will never work again.