NEW YORK // When Susan Matlow was made redundant in December 2008 from her job as a senior international tax counsellor at American Express in New York, she found her 15 years as a lawyer and economics degree from the Wharton School were not enough to land her a new job.
"The job market was very tight and continues to be for people of my seniority and type of work," Ms Matlow says.
To save cash, she resorted to subletting her apartment and moved in with her 95-year-old grandmother. With working opportunities limited, Ms Matlow has since set up her own successful business helping elderly people deal with financial planning. She has been one of the lucky ones.
It is often mentioned that the official 9.6 per cent US unemployment rate does not include the rapidly growing number of people who can only find part-time work or who have stopped looking for a job altogether.
Yet one of the more overlooked and shocking statistics of the US recession is that 20 per cent of the unemployed are graduates. Many have been out of work for more than a year.
These people are not just in depressed industrial areas such as Michigan, they are living in supposed growth engines of the country such as New York and Silicon Valley.
The CBS television show 60 Minutes recently profiled people living in San Jose in Silicon Valley who, like 1.5 million nationwide, have already received the maximum of 99 weeks of federal unemployment benefit and still have no work.
One woman, formerly a financial analyst, has been unemployed for two years, lost her home and is living in the attic room of a friend.
A man, a former fibre-optics engineering manager, was pleased to have just landed a part-time job as a shop assistant.
Many long-term unemployed professionals across the county are in their 40s, 50s and 60s - too young to retire, yet considered too old to hire by many employers.
These people face a bleak future. Having spent their retirement savings, they are unlikely to recover their losses even when the job market does start to improve. And for all the long-term unemployed in the US, that recovery still looks a long way off.
business@thenational.ae
Game Changer
Director: Shankar
Stars: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S J Suryah, Jayaram
Rating: 2/5
Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.
When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.
How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
What can you do?
Document everything immediately; including dates, times, locations and witnesses
Seek professional advice from a legal expert
You can report an incident to HR or an immediate supervisor
You can use the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation’s dedicated hotline
In criminal cases, you can contact the police for additional support
Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
Yemen's Bahais and the charges they often face
The Baha'i faith was made known in Yemen in the 19th century, first introduced by an Iranian man named Ali Muhammad Al Shirazi, considered the Herald of the Baha'i faith in 1844.
The Baha'i faith has had a growing number of followers in recent years despite persecution in Yemen and Iran.
Today, some 2,000 Baha'is reside in Yemen, according to Insaf.
"The 24 defendants represented by the House of Justice, which has intelligence outfits from the uS and the UK working to carry out an espionage scheme in Yemen under the guise of religion.. aimed to impant and found the Bahai sect on Yemeni soil by bringing foreign Bahais from abroad and homing them in Yemen," the charge sheet said.
Baha'Ullah, the founder of the Bahai faith, was exiled by the Ottoman Empire in 1868 from Iran to what is now Israel. Now, the Bahai faith's highest governing body, known as the Universal House of Justice, is based in the Israeli city of Haifa, which the Bahais turn towards during prayer.
The Houthis cite this as collective "evidence" of Bahai "links" to Israel - which the Houthis consider their enemy.
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Things Heard & Seen
Directed by: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
Starring: Amanda Seyfried, James Norton
2/5
A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language
- 2018: Formal work begins
- November 2021: First 17 volumes launched
- November 2022: Additional 19 volumes released
- October 2023: Another 31 volumes released
- November 2024: All 127 volumes completed
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets