Bankster damage

A legitimate question is being raised--How long can folks be unemployed before they start to lose their skills?  There are other related questions such as--What is lost when an organization fails and the linkages between various workers and departments are shattered?

CHART OF THE DAY: Workers Are Unemployed So Long, They're Forgetting Their Skills

Vincent Fernando and Kamelia Angelova | Jan. 20, 2010, 2:15 PM 

As highlighted by The Economist, only 400,000 more Americans were employed in 2009 vs. 1999 despite the fact that the population had grown by 30 million. Yet it gets worse -- Not only has unemployment skyrocketed, but long-term unemployment has skyrocketed even higher. (Shown in the chart below.) 

The Economist: Long-term unemployment is what will make this economic downturn inordinately tough for many Americans to bear. Regardless of what headline U.S. GDP data may do, the many of the people represented by the spike below will experience a multi-year personal economic downturn regardless. 

Of course, it's worth asking whether the skills they forget will even be valuable by the time things turn around.