Re-Employment Unsatisfying for Long-Term Unemployed

I've had some pretty terrible jobs in my short life, though by and large, they've been counterbalanced by some nice benefits and some really terrific employers and co-workers. The further removed I am from the worst of my previous jobs, the more rosy they look. If I try hard enough, I can force myself to forget that I was unable to revive one of our residents while I was working a shift at a long-term housing facility and instead focus on the memory of my supervisor, a beautiful woman who survived her second round of breast cancer while I worked for her. I might be kind of a grouchy gal, but when it comes to nostalgia for times gone by, it seems I have plenty to go around.

A new report (pdf) published by the Pew Research Center explores this same idea when it comes to finding new employment after a long-term lay-off. Newly re-employed workers are less likely to be satisfied with their new job than they were with their former work, and the longer you are out of work, the more this problem is exacerbated. Specifically, people out of work for more than six months were much more likely to rate their new job as unsatisfactory, or at least worse than their previous one. The same study finds something we already knew: the longer you're out of work, the less optimistic you are about finding new employment.

There's no reason given as to why people rate their new jobs as less desirable than their last (it's not clear if they really are worse jobs, for instance, which is certainly a possibility). But if my own misplaced sentimentality is any indication of a larger pattern, we simply remember in extremes.

Photo credit: mikecolvin82