Over 25% of U.S. workers lost jobs

9/4/2010

WASHINGTON - Just more than a quarter of the nation's 139 million employed workers endured a bout of unemployment during the Great Recession, according to results of a Pew Research Center survey released this week.

And they tend to be slightly less satisfied in their new jobs than other workers.

Re-employed workers were more likely than others to see themselves as overqualified for their jobs, and six in 10 said they either changed careers or seriously considered doing so while they were out of work.

Pew's survey of re-employed workers was taken as the nation endures the longest bout of long-term unemployment since World War II. Almost 45 percent of the nation's 14.6 million jobless Americans have been unemployed for at least six months.

The Pew poll also found that many re-employed workers' new jobs did not last long. More than one-third of those surveyed suffered two of more periods of unemployment during the recession, and one in six was thrown out of work three or more times.

Just more than four in 10 re-employed workers said their new jobs were better than their old ones.