“One of the best predictors of future unemployment is past history of unemployment.” ( The Long-Term Decline in Prime-Age Male Labor Force Participation, 2016 Obama Whitehouse publication)

I recently did a series of posts on “flourishing”, a type of well-being that taps into a sense of control and purpose in life. Flourishing somewhat overlaps with happiness but they are distinct concepts.  In practical terms, flourishing is measured by questions on things like autonomy, determination, interest, engagement, aspirations, motivation, and a sense of meaning or direction (Senik, 2011). There are a bunch of surveys on flourishing. One of my favorites is the European Social Survey (ESS), freely available from http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org.  One of the features of flourishing measured by the ESS is competence: the feeling of accomplishment that comes from doing what it takes to achieve a goal.

Problem is, few people reach the pleasure of competence without going through the discomfort of incompetence. Before you know what you’re doing, you don’t know what you’re doing. And other people see it. That’s why being a newbie on the job can be such an excruciating experience: if not in reality, at least in the imagination. 

Achieving competence is not guaranteed. So we have fear of failure, followed by disengagement. And that explains much of why people who have been out of job market for a while stop looking for work. And the longer they’re out, the harder it is for them to even try to get back in - even though working is strongly and consistently associated with subjective well-being, even after controlling for the perk of making money. 

Care of an earlier post, here are some other reasons why the long-term unemployed get stuck in their ruts:

Reason 1: “The core experience of unemployment and searching for work is precisely one of repeatedly subjecting oneself to social evaluation under conditions of great uncertainty, which upon repeated employer rejections frequently leads unemployed workers to perceive themselves as ‘flawed’.” ( Basbug & Sharone, 2017)

Reason 2:  “Absence from the labor force may mean that critical skills atrophy or are never acquired, making work in later years less likely and less productive... Lack of labor force attachment may also sever or inhibit ties to the networks of firms and fellow workers that ease employment transitions.” ( The Long-Term Decline in Prime-Age Male Labor Force Participation, Obama Whitehouse Publication)

Reason 3: Conflict is part and parcel of the work experience. Most jobs involve working in hierarchies and teams, which are inherently conflict-prone (variations on "do it that way", "no, I want do it this way"). Failure, mistakes, and being out-shined by others are also part of the job, which is not only humiliating but engenders decision-making conflict between risk (trying something different that's potentially more effective, or not) and staying with the comfortable tried-and-barely adequate. The brain finds conflict aversive and so do people. (Dreisbach and Fischer, 2012)

Reason 4: A lot of people find cognitive effort unpleasant. A lot of people find the routine tasks of starter jobs boring. There is a sweet spot: manageable difficulty or moderate challenge, which is kinda fun and, when successfully negotiated, builds self-confidence and a sense of accomplishment. Unfortunately, getting from unpleasantly hard or boring to the thrill of self-efficacy is an incremental process that can take years of skill-building. However, the beginning stages of this process may not be so rewarding, especially when compared to the easy pleasures of leisure. (Kurzban et al, 2013)

Reason 5: The "good-enough" of unemployment can look better and better the longer one is out of the labor force, especially when government benefits and/or household members provide enough income to get by. 

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References:

Basbug, G. & Sharone, O. "The Emotional Toll of Long-Term Unemployment: Examining the Interaction Effects of Gender and Marital Status." RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, vol. 3 no. 3, 2017, pp. 222-244. Project MUSE, muse.jhu.edu/article/659931

Dreisbach, G. and R. Fischer (2012). "Conflicts as aversive signals." Brain and Cognition 78(2): 94-98.

Krueger, A. B. (2017). Where Have All the Workers Gone?: An Inquiry into the Decline of the U.S. Labor Force Participation Rate. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 2017(2), 1-87. Brookings Institution Press. Retrieved July 31, 2018, from Project MUSE database.

Kurzban, R., Duckworth, A., Kable, J. W., & Myers, J. (2013). An opportunity cost model of subjective effort and task performance. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 36, 661–679. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X12003196

Senik, C. (2011). Is Happiness Different From Flourishing? Cross-Country Evidence from the ESS. Revue d'économie politique, vol. 121,(1), 17-34. doi:10.3917/redp.211.0017.

The Long-Term Decline in Prime-Age Male Labor Force Participation (2016 Obama Whitehouse publication)