Job Search Turnaround and The Long-Term Unemployed: An Exploratory Framework and A Contingency Model

Abstract

While the study of human work and the workplace occupies a central place in scientific thought and discourse, less attention is given to the unemployment phenomenon and far less to the long term unemployment experience. Focusing on the latter, this paper offers a conceptual framework and a contingency model with moderators believed to influence the long term unemployment-job search-reemployment relationship. We offer a set of propositions that lend themselves to empirical testing, and discuss a multi-level interventional model that carry implications for vocational evaluation and career assessment practitioners working with the unemployed and particularly the long term unemployed population.

Keywords: Career assessment, Job loss, Long-term unemployment, Job search, Workforce development