http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/us/15poll.html?_r=1&partner=EXCITE&ei=5043By MICHAEL LUO and MEGAN THEE-BRENAN
Published: December 14, 2009
More than half of the nation’s unemployed workers have borrowed money from friends or relatives. An equal number have cut back on doctor’s visits or medical treatments because they are out of work.
Almost half have suffered from depression or anxiety. About four in 10 parents have noticed behavioral changes in their children that they blame on their struggles.
Joblessness has wreaked both financial and emotional havoc on the lives of many of those out of work, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll of unemployed adults, causing major life changes, mental health issues and struggles to maintain even basic necessities in large numbers.
The results of the poll, which surveyed 708 unemployed adults from Dec. 5 to Dec. 10 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points, help to lay bare the depth of the trauma experienced by millions across the country who are out of work as the jobless rate hovers at 10 percent and, in particular, as the ranks of the long-term unemployed soar.
Roughly half of the respondents described the recession as a hardship that had caused major life changes. Generally, those who have been out of work longer reported experiencing more acute financial and emotional effects.
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