What Are Your Chances of Finding a Job? Slim and Growing Slimmer

If 2010 was the year of joblessness, 2011 may become the year that that joblessness became intractable. Recently released Department of Labor stats paint a grim picture for the long-term unemployed.

In a nutshell: Those out of work for five weeks have a monthly re-employment rate of 31%. For those out of work for a full year, that re-employment rate falls to 8.7%. And for those who are members of the 99ers club (having collected the maximum allowable 99 weeks of unemployment benefits), their chances of finding a job are about as good as that of a sewer rat's. OK, those are my words, not the Labor Department's. But why mince them?