Biden To Jobless: 'Hang In There'

WASHINGTON -- Vice President Joe Biden has three words of advice for America's 14.5 million unemployed: "hang in there."

Anna Robertson of Yahoo! News asked Biden in an interview posted Thursday what he has to say to those who are currently out of work. Biden said that while the unemployment rate is only "dropping minimally," the economy is slowly improving, and all people can really do right now is to wait it out.

"A significant portion of the companies out there ... are saying now that they're gonna begin to hire this year," he said. "The message is hang in there, things are coming back."

When asked what non-political things people could do to help turn around the economy, Biden suggested a healthy diet.

"Don't smoke, eat healthy, do not consume junk foods," he said. "I know that sounds silly, but it's very practical in terms of your own health and well-being, and also on the impact of the cost of maintaining the health care system in the United States."

The unemployment rate is widely expected to remain above 9 percent this year and above 8 percent next year. That's bad news for many of the nation's jobless -- particularly the 6.4 million people who have been unemployed for six months or longer -- who have few options to improve their chances of getting hired. That's because employers just don't want people who've been out of work for a long time.

HuffPost has been tracking the phenomenon of employers refusing to hire the unemployed, both explicitly, through job ads with stipulations such as "Must be currently employed," and more subtly by filtering out jobless applicants through credit checks and staffing agencies.

The longer you're out of work, the less likely you are to find a new job. That's bad news for the 1.4 million people who've been out of work for 99 weeks or longer.

They can take cold comfort in the fact that the vice president feels their pain.

"I can remember vividly that long walk my father had to take up a short flight of stairs to tell us he was leaving to find a job," Biden said in the Yahoo! interview. "When you're out of work, it's not a slowdown -- it's a depression."

Comments

[NatashaYahnee]

02:22 PM on 02/03/2011

"Hang in there"? "Eat healthy"? SERIOUSLY??????

[ocean123]

01:31 PM on 02/01/2011

Lost my job, lost my car, losing my house. Try hanging on to this!!!!!!

[singfree]

10:03 AM on 02/09/2011

Ocean, I know where your coming from, I'm on the same track (one more month of savings) It seems too many people, especially the fat cats, hear of these stories, but don't really get it. People are so disconnected. I've sent out hundreds, possiblily thousands of resume over last 3 yrs., had only a couple interviews; they were shocking. The degree of unprofessionalism and antisocial behavior seems to be the growing trend. At one interview I was asked my age, on another one, the interviewer began by looking over my resume, and said, "I see you have a degree in psychology, don't psychoanalyze me my mom does enough of that." Now I have a sense of humor, and would try to turn something crazy into a joke, but nothing came to mind. I felt that the interviewer had a personal problem with my education, especially since it was a data entry job that didn't require a degree.Regardless of my degree, I'm willing to do any job I'm capable. In college, I did data entry of 100's of surveys and statistics on data sets and never took a counseling psych course. I would have done the best job possible. My husband is laid-off due to downsizing and we have a son, that job would have meant the world to us.I wish you the best, and hope for a breakthrough for all of us desperately needing work.

[dennisfa]

01:10 PM on 02/01/2011

Biden, would you say this to someone who has used up their unemployment benefits, lost thier home, lost their car, spent their savings, spent their 401K, no health insurance, has unscrupulous debt collectors hounding them.

[Sam1USA]

12:06 PM on 02/01/2011

Wow. This train has jumped the tracks.

Hang in there? HANG IN THERE!???

$30 Billion in foreign aid and we have to hang in there.

$2 Trillion in cash being hoarded by our largest corporations and we have to hang in there.

The largest wealth disparity since the 1930s and we have to hang in there.

Tax breaks for the wealthy which have removed $60 Billion or so from our nation's funds EVERY YEAR since they were enacted in 2001 and will continue to do do until they are stopped and we have to hang in there.

Since lists are relatively incapable of inciting change, I'll stop there.

And with my 25 years of experience; my 3 college degrees with no GPA less than 3.62; my sacrifice to my country through military service with 10 major awards; my 765 applications out since July 2008; my unemployment benefits ending 6 months ago; my possessions, excluding my 12 year old car now fitting into four 30 gallon bins; my last withdrawal from my Roth IRA complete as of yesterday; and my final $3000 in savings keeping me from the street...

I am supposed to hang in there.

PS - I'm not even in the worst shape. Many others are facing far more disastrous circumstances and they too, are supposed to hang in there.

Wow.

[Thomas Kuzdal]

01:52 AM on 01/31/2011

25 million people can't regain their economic freedom; they can't find a job.

And Charlie Sheen can't lose one. Go figure.

[lodkia]

04:28 PM on 01/30/2011

Right now it seems like a competition (going on more than six months now) as to who can slam and put down the "99ers" the hardest! All I can say is have your fun; it actually is bordering on "hate" speech and I don't use that word lightly!

[Thomas Kuzdal]

01:58 AM on 01/31/2011

The competition's ongoing since.....oh, about a year ago.

I did just over 30 years without UI. Paid my taxes, never criticized anyone. Now, I find out I'm lazy, stupid, working the system. Like that.

Today, the funniest stuff? The wizards who wanna raise the retirement age. Wow!! If there's a United States in 2061, I'm not sure what us 57 year-ols are gonna do for the next 13 years!!

[lodkia]

04:13 PM on 01/30/2011

Yes, the 2012 elections will be interesting. How the "99ers" will vote is of particular interest!

[kickserv]

12:32 PM on 01/30/2011

This just shows you how not just Biden is out of touch with the American people, but this whole Administration including Mr. & Mrs. Obama. I have never seen an Administration act like such elitists than these people. The only problem is Obama and all his thugs have accumulated lots of power. They have been dictating to the American people sence day one. Taking over car companies, taking over banks, telling you the what to eat, telling us not to travel , telling us we muct buy health care if I want it or not or if I could afford it or not, telling people they make to much money, telling us what kind of cars to drive, and much more. Why do they do this, two reasons, one they are elitists and they think they know what is best for us because we are to stupid to know how to run our own lives as well as our families lives and second the American people have allowed them to do it. We as American's have to remind all these people that it is us the American people that have all the power.
So remember come 2012 get out there and vote them all of this Administration out of office. If you are not registered please get registered we need your vote.

[fortressfountain]

11:12 AM on 01/30/2011

What is wrong with the incompetant politicans?
Would they enjoy going a year or 2 without money and their prospects being a 10 hour a week job at a mcburger?
No one will even be able to afford the fine for not having health care.
They created the mess and they should fix it or do us all a favor and get out of office and give your jobs to someone who can fix the mess.
Plenty of money for wars and to give to corporations.

[spinotter11]

05:44 PM on 01/30/2011

You are assuming that someone can fix the mess. It is possible that the mess is not going to be fixed.

[bascombe]

08:14 AM on 01/30/2011

someone tell motormouth to fix the tax code, so american employment, not outsourcing and offshoring, are encouraged. it's a natural stimulus and it creates consumers and taxpayers.

maybe joe and his corporatist friens are more interested in a feudal america than they are a recovered america. their actions speak louder than their words.

[JeffreyGold]

07:39 AM on 01/30/2011

What a lame response for a developed country that has very porous nets when it comes to social safety as well as financial crimes.

The thing is collapsing under the sheer weight of corruption---let alone the debt burden.

We're hanging on all right, Mr. Biden. By the way, did you build your own McMansion in Costa Rica like the Clintons?

[kemcha]

06:46 AM on 01/30/2011

I have a suggestion for Joe Biden: perhaps if you urged the President to pursue Tier 5 unemployment and extend it for a year, like what he did with Tier 1-4, then perhaps we could hang in there.

I fear our country is headed toward the kind of situation that we see happening in Egypt.

Our government already is on the path of becoming more like McCarthyism. Congress has passed laws taking away the basic constitutional rights that our founding fathers gave us when they drafted the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

[bascombe]

08:16 AM on 01/30/2011

if the beneficiary of a government policy does not have a last name of "Inc.", then you won't see DLC/DSCC/DCCC operatives like harry, joe or barack do anything to help them.

[joeyfoto]

08:13 PM on 01/29/2011

No Joe, "Hang in there." is not good enough. How about: "learn something"... "Pick up a new trade;" "Do something to make your time more valuable to someone..."

"Hang in there." is not going help when their old jobs don't come back. Education is the way out of this for individuals and for the country... Ask the Chinese.

[Arts4u]

08:19 PM on 02/01/2011

The chinese work for $250 a month... this is why this has happened, in part.

We can educate as much as we want... if someone in China or India will do it for less.... any investment in additional education is a waste.

We must stop the outsourcing/offshoring.

[verycold]

05:12 PM on 01/29/2011

For any VP this is a hard question to take and really no answer that will wipe away the ruin that has already happened.  For the millions that have lost so much "hanging in there"  sounds hollow. 

The government can't create jobs without taxing workers more to put more people to work.  Did you know that polls show that about 1/4 of all US citizens think the government has their own checkbook.  So when they hear the president talking about creating jobs, or supporting social safety net programs, they think there is a fund that can do that. 

This administration was unaware of the magnitude of this recession.  I have no idea why.  I am old and I knew this time was different.  All the warning signs over many, many years was showing stagnating wages, fewer job creation, and each recession was becoming jobless in nature.  I would have to guess this administration thought a nearly trillion dollar stimulus would get the job done.  Biden was in charge of the stimulus and IMO the money was ill spent in too many cases.  I live in a pretty decent size city, and there was not ONE stimulus related project that was obvious to anybody.  I do think jobs were "save", but now they are gone because the budgets of the state and local governments couldn't sustain those jobs without help from the feds. 

I know....unemployment is a lagging indicator.  Notice nobody says that anymore.

[spinotter11]

05:51 PM on 01/30/2011

A very balanced and sane account of where we are now, F+F. And some compassion for Biden too. These are the attitudes we all need to observe in talking to one another and in judging others.

I've known for a long time that we were in a bubble that was going to pop one day. They're trying to plug all the holes but more holes just keep on coming. It's deflating and we are going to have to ride this thing down. We could ride it together, by sharing the pain equally. That doesn't appear to be what is happening. A streak of greed and corruption so ferocious and savage that I could never have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself.

[angry in ct]

03:48 PM on 02/01/2011

Pretty much everything you have said is right on the money, except in our state, the stimulus money did get used in order to make needed repairs and refurbishments to the Merritt Parkway, which, if you live in the southern part of the state as I do, had some areas that needed some major repairs. But otherwise, you are absolutely correct about the stimulus not having helped as much as this current administration assumes.

[bcmom]

04:19 PM on 01/29/2011

That is easy for him to say. How about us not loaning out money to other countries for a year and getting out of two wars????????????