Changing the Individual as a Strategy for Ameliorating the Effects of Unemployment

The unemployed are a heterogeneous group comprising the able and disabled, young and old, men and women, black and white, unskilled and highly skilled. It includes those who have only recently lost their jobs and those who have been out of work for many years, those who have lost their jobs for the first time and those who have a history of losing their jobs. It also includes young people who have never been employed since leaving full‐time education. These are just a few of the many dimensions along which this heterogeneity can be described. Activities which may help some segments of the unemployed population may be irrelevant to others. This article cannot hope to present an exhaustive treatment of all the possible ways forward. Given this caveat, however, a broad‐brush attempt will be made to examine some of the ways in which the unemployed can be helped, to identify the contribution the personnel manager can make to helping the unemployed, and to comment on the assumptions that underpin the various approaches discussed.