Michael Panzner

December 22, 2010

Talk about losing hope.

A new survey of unemployed Americans from Rutgers' Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, entitled "The Shattered American Dream: Unemployed Workers Lose Ground, Hope, and Faith in their Futures," documents dramatic erosion in the quality of life for millions of Americans.

According to the report's authors,

their financial reserves are exhausted, their job prospects nil, their family relations stressed and their belief in government’s ability to help them is negligible. They feel hopeless and powerless, unable to see their way out of the Great Recession that has claimed 8.5 million jobs.

Indeed, one doesn't even have to read through the entire 45 pages of the report to see just how bad things have gotten for so many individuals and families; these three charts just about say it all:

That last chart, which highlights the fact that more than half of those polled believe a recovery is at least three to five years away, is particularly depressing.

Still, the good news is that Wall Street is happy -- right?