Here's some of what was found:
-The Congressional Budget Office estimates that thousands more jobs would have disappeared and the growth rate would have been 1.2 to 3.2 points lower in the third quarter of 2009 without the Recovery Act's stimulus package, but even so the official unemployment rate remains around 10 percent. When economists take into account discouraged workers that rises to almost 18 percent, the highest figure since the 1930s.
-As of March 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 44 percent of jobless workers had been out of work for six months or more. This is more than double the number recorded in December 2008.
-A December 2009 survey found that 44 percent of families had experienced the job loss of one or more members, a reduction in hours, or a cut in pay over the past year.
FEELING THE PINCH ON BASIC NECESSITIES
The Gallup Household Wellbeing Poll shows that between in the final quarter of 2009, 18.5 percent of households reported that they had not always had enough money to buy the food they needed during the year. Another poll found that one in 5 low-income New York City residents had the gas, electricity, or telephone turned off for nonpayment or late payment.
A study released by the House Committee on Ways and Means in November found that 78 percent of the nation's food banks had been forced to reduce the amount of food they gave to each client. Fifty-five percent had to turn people away because the agency didn't have enough food.
A December 2009 New York Times/CBS News poll of unemployed adults found that more than half of the unemployed had cut back on medical treatments or doctors' visits, and a similar number had to borrow money from friends or relatives to get by.
THE HUMAN COSTS OF UNEMPLOYMENT AND ECONOMIC STRESS
A recent National Bureau of Economic Research working paper looked at the mortality rates of men who had lost their jobs in earlier recessions and found a 15 to 20 percent increase in death rates during the next 20 years. A man who lost his job at age 30 was on average likely to die a year-and-half earlier than a man who was steadily employed. A study of plant closures in Sweden reported a 44 percent increase in the mortality risk among men during the first four years following the loss of a job.
Suicide hotlines across the country have seen a spike in calls, from 39,000 in January 2009 to 57,000 in July, with 30 percent of the increase directly related to the economy, according to Richard McKeon, lead adviser for suicide prevention for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Even among workers who retain their jobs, pay cuts and fears of job loss take a huge toll. The Families and Work Institute's ongoing National Study of the Changing Workforce shows that economic insecurity is the number one predictor of overall health problems, more frequent signs of depression, sleep difficulties, and stress among employed workers. Unemployment takes an even more severe toll on people's health. In the NYT/CBS poll, 55 percent of laid-off workers reported that their unemployment triggered insomnia. Almost half said that it had led to conflicts with family members or friends. Women were more likely than men to admit to anxiety or depression as a result of job loss, but men were more likely to report feeling ashamed most of the time.
MEN AND WOMEN FEEL THE CRISIS IN DISTINCTIVE WAYS
Men have born the brunt of the recession so far, accounting for more than three-quarters of job losses. And men are more likely than women to experience job or income loss as a fundamental threat to their identity. But the wives of laid-off men also suffer: Unemployed men are more likely to exhibit hostility towards their partners than unemployed women. Not surprisingly, female partners of unemployed men have higher level of depressive and anxious symptoms than do male partners of unemployed women.
As with previous economic crises, domestic violence has risen. Last year, the National Domestic Violence Hotline reported that calls were up by almost 50 percent over the previous year. A 2009 poll found an increase in domestic violence distress calls at 75 percent of the centers surveyed, most of them related to "financial issues," "stress," and "job loss."
The lower rates of unemployment among women relative to men disguise a crisis for single mothers and their children. According to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report released March 5, 2010, the unemployment rate of single mothers is now 68 percent higher than at the start of the recession. Many single mothers are now struggling to avoid foreclosure, since low-income women, especially women of color, were more likely to be targeted by predatory lenders for subprime mortgages.
Even when they did not take on a mortgage and have not lost their jobs, such women are at risk. The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that 40 percent of families facing eviction because of foreclosure are renters, many of them single-mother families.
Unemployment, poverty, and housing insecurity have also risen sharply among married couples with children. As of December 2009, one in seven children was living with a parent who had lost his or her job.
IMPACT ON CHILDREN
Children of economically stressed families often stop looking up to their parents and instead find identity in their peer group. Their motivation to succeed in school and in life can plummet. Teachers reported that children of economically distressed parents are more likely to have behavioral issues. A Chicago study found that children whose mothers experienced unstable employment showed declining levels of self-esteem and proficiency in school.
Children who become homeless are especially at risk, because they tend to miss more school days, which leads them to fall behind academically, and to change schools more often. School relocation is more closely associated with delinquent behavior and academic failure among teens than is family structure.
On average, living through a parent's unemployment increases a child's chance of being held back in school by 15 percent.
Data compiled from The Panel Study of Income Dynamics in the recessions in 1973-1975 and 1980-1982 show that children who fell into poverty during these recessions were three times more likely to be poor as adults than were children who did not experience poverty. They also had worse health as adults than those whose parents remained solvent throughout the recession.
Other studies show that the chronic stress associated with homelessness, poverty, and school relocation in childhood significantly impairs short-term memory - a key factor in academic success and personal competence -- by the teenage years.
YOUNG ADULTS AND THE RECESSION
The current recession has also put pressure on young people who are trying to complete their college education. Just as they or their parents are facing income losses, financially strapped states are cutting back on support for higher education and further raising tuition, which was already rising much faster than family income.
In 2009, 37 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds were unemployed or no longer looking for work, and a Pew Survey that year found that 10 percent of people aged 18-34 had moved back in with their parents because of the recession. One national longitudinal study found that people who were unemployed for substantial periods in their teens or early 20s were far more likely to develop depressive symptoms and/or to become heavy drinkers by the time they were middle-aged, regardless of their prior psychological history or drinking patterns.
Young adults who recently graduated from college are not out of the woods, even if they get job offers. Yale economist Lisa Kahn studied the careers of white men who graduated from college between 1979 and 1989. She found that graduates who entered the job market during the 1981-82 recession not only made 25 percent less in their first year than graduates who entered the job market in better times, but continued to earn less than their more fortunate peers even 17 years later.
African-American men face even worse prospects. While the rate of long-term unemployment has grown for all demographic groups, it has grown most sharply for African-American men, who by January 2010 made up just 5.5 percent of the labor force, but 13 percent of the long-term unemployed.
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