How do we define the unemployed and underemployed?

In future posts I would like to explore what it means (in our community, however we define that) to be unemployed and underemployed. What I plan to get at here is three things: the difference between unemployment and underemployment, how we define what it is to be unemployed and how we recognize the state of underemployment.

My posts to date have mostly been advice to the unemployed, but I think that this exploration is very relevant to those still in job search. How we see ourselves and therefore position ourselves to others is based, in part, on the taxonomy we use to articulate our worth. Our worth, or at least the worth we determine ourselves to have and the worth others put on our skills, experiences and talents, is in direct relationship to matching what we have with what an employer needs. More importantly it's how we are able to be selected and ourselves select a suitable job match.

Further to this idea I would like to take some time to examine the values and beliefs that have and do define what it is to be unemployed and underemployed in our community. My scope here is going to be on the U.S. The question that I would like to tackle is this: How has the most recent economic downturn together with the disguised talent shortage and the retiring baby-boomer population, shifted how the unemployed and underemployed is viewed and treated in our community?

This is kind of a set-up post, but I hope to engage some of my followers in the discussion so it's also a "call to action"! In the words of the recently unemployed or maybe underemployed Jerry Maguire, "Who's coming with me?" (1996) http://bit.ly/cqUFrP

People want to help you, but you have to tell them how! Like the Yellow Brick Road, job search is scary, uncertain and long, but there are people along the way who can help!

You can do this!