President 2012: Chronic Unemployment Worse Than Great Depression

This will be the number one issue in the Presidential race of 2012 – unemployment.

About 6.2 million Americans, 45.1 percent of all unemployed workers in this country, have been jobless for more than six months – a higher percentage than during the Great Depression.

The bigger the gap on someone’s resume, the more questions employers have.

“(Employers) think: ‘Oh, well, there must be something really wrong with them because they haven’t gotten a job in 6 months, a year, 2 years.’ But that’s not necessarily the case,” said Marjorie Gardner-Cruse with the Hollywood Worksource Center.

The problem of course is the economy, but some industries, especially certain manufacturing jobs, are not ever expected to come back. Experts say unemployed workers need to be prepared to change careers.

“That person has to realize that, discover what field they want to work in, become trained and find a job in that field,” said Jerry Nickelsburg, Sr., an economist at UCLA.

Here’s another problem: more than 1 million of the long-term unemployed have run out of unemployment benefits, leaving them without the money to get new training, buy new clothes, or even get to job interviews.

If the GOP nominates a half-way decent candidate, President Obama will have a hard time persuading voters that he has done a job deserving re-election.