Decline of the working man

摘要

Francis mccloskey lost his job at the Philadelphia city government's information hotline in August 2009. Twenty months and more than 1,000 job applications later he is still out of work. He has attended scores of jobs fairs, sought help from job-search coaches and cold-called dozens of companies. This year he has been asked to only three interviews. Soon Mr McCloskey will join the growing ranks of "99ers", Americans who have drawn jobless benefits for the maximum 99 weeks. His worry is plain: "I'm really drawing a blank on what I'll do then."