Letter: From the perspective of the long-term unemployed
We hear from Millford Prewitt, a Brooklynite in his late 50s who has been unemployed for more than three years.
One last thing about jobs before we move on. About our story yesterday on long-term unemployment and how people get by: Millford Prewitt out of Brooklyn, N.Y., heard it and had this to say.
Millford Prewitt: Once again, I had to chuckle to myself, as I have been unemployed since November 2008, and I’m now looking at three-and-a-half years of unemployment. In my late ’50s, I have nearly exhausted my retirement savings and I had to sell a home I loved to generate a cushion from which the taxman took a big bite in capital gains.
I wish someone would really look at the really, really long-term unemployed, especially those of us who are hitting 60 and for whom a job interview is as rare as a lottery hit.