For unemployed, statistics tell only part of story

The hiring drought comes at a time when Congress is considering a renewal of extended unemployment benefits, which are set to expire at the end of May. It's not a given that Congress will do anything: In April hearings, the House Ways and Means Committee listened to experts who maintained that unemployment benefits may discourage people from searching for work. One witness held that unemployment compensation allows people to slow down their job searches or be more selective in accepting offers.

Advocates of the long-term unemployed defend those benefits. "The purpose of unemployment compensation is to let people stay out until there are jobs where they can be employed," says John Dodds, director of the Philadelphia Unemployment Project. "You don't want architects washing windows and telecom workers becoming janitors."

But that's exactly what Mr. Tanksley might do. After 18 months of looking for work, he's waiting to hear about an opening in Harrisburg, Pa. - or a job as a janitor at the local post office. "If the janitor job comes through, I'll have to take it, because it gives me benefits for me and my 11-year-old son," says Tanksley. "But I'd rather be working with wire. When something is broke, no one can fix it faster than me."

In the past, companies probably would have leapt to hire a trained worker like Tanksley. But these days, with so many people searching, they can be very selective in their hiring. This is particularly true for white-collar workers. "Three to five years ago, a company would post a job and get 10 to 20 résumés. Now they get 1,000," says Scott Kane, a partner at Gray Hair Management LLC, a Deerfield, Ill. firm that helps out-of-work clients hunt for jobs. "So they wait until the perfect candidate shows up."

Or until they hire someone from within. That, at least, is the experience of Chuck Heroux, the former president of a company that manufactured pipeline coatings. "A lot of companies are planning to fill from within, but they go out to see if someone with perfect talents is around," he says. "So there are a lot of job openings that aren't real jobs." After his company got bought out, the Illinois resident never expected to be out of work for 18 months.

Protracted unemployment sometimes makes workers reexamine their futures. Is it time to take courses at a local university? Or completely change careers?

That's what Ms. McGuire, out of work for seven months, is wondering: "It might be an opportunity to do something different, partly because the need for program managers in the technical field is not incredibly high."

So she's considering some gardening classes at Cal Poly University, in hopes of finding work with a grower. Although she has dozens of résumés out, including one with the county and the US Postal Service, she wants her next job to offer long-term prospects.

Although McGuire does not want to leave her area, many of those out of work for a long time are becoming more flexible - something placement companies say is important.

It's a lesson the Lee family has learned. Mr. Lee's wife had been working at Harrah's Casino in East Chicago, Ind., but got a better job offer when her husband was unemployed. Now, she works in Laughlin, Nev. And Lee declares: "I'm open to any opportunity within the 50 states. My wife took something 2,000 miles away, so we're very flexible."

• Anne Stein in Chicago and and Leila Wombacher Knox in San Luis Obispo, Calif., contributed to this report.

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