For Long-Term Unemployed, Help Is Running Out [View all]

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http://www.wbur.org/npr/150126242/for-long-term-unemployed-help-is-running-out

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Job seekers line up to enter a career fair in Los Angeles. Both Congress and states are cutting back on unemployment benefits. (Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images)

Diane Turner can't find work. She spent 30 years managing dental practices in Sonoma County, north of San Francisco, but lost her last job in that field a couple of years ago.

She worked for a while greeting customers at an auto body shop, but lost that job a year ago. "It was very depressing," Turner says. "I always worked, and I was always able to get a job."

Having seen firsthand how competition for jobs is "absolutely fierce" — more than 200 applicants sometimes turn up even when part-time jobs are listed — Turner is not surprised to learn that the unemployment rate is slow to come down.

On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the economy gained a net total of 120,000 jobs in March, and that the unemployment rate declined to 8.2 percent.