Huffington Magazine Issue 83 | Page 9

JAHI CHIKWENDIU/THE WASHINGTON POST/GETTY IMAGES Enter LOOKING FORWARD IN ANGST JASON LINKINS HUFFINGTON 01.12.14 NEW YEAR, OLD UNEMPLOYMENT CRISIS ELCOME TO A NEW YEAR everyone! How do you like the look of 2014 so far? Well, if you are like me, you’re worried. It’s not the sort of thing that got talked about on the Sunday shows, because the producers of those shows don’t actually like ordinary people, but on Dec. 28, 1.3 million W Americans who had been left clinging to their unemployment insurance as a lifeline during the unemployment crisis lost that lifeline, and have taken an incremental step closer to a 2014 of possibly freezing or starving to death. This is, as The Economist points out, the “darker shadow” of this crisis — the world of the long-term unemployed. It’s a story that resonates with me, because not long ago, I was unemployed for an extended pe- Thousands of applicants attend a job fair hosted by Tanger Outlets for its November opening on Sept. 17, 2013, in Fort Washington, Md.