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Last Fall, the Financial Times of Germany sentreporter Sabine Muscat to Trentonto report on unemployment and its consequences in New Jersey. Muscat told part of her storythrough the eyes of PSG member Krishnan Narayanan, and this is the story shefiled, translated from the original German:
ERROR IN THESYSTEMBySabine Muscat
TRENTON, NJ — Three bucks, two suitcases anda student visa. That was all Krishnan Narayanan had with him when he deplanedin New York inMarch of 1972. The misery of Calcuttawas behind him. In the slums of his hometown, Mother Teresa was working to carefor Calcutta’s orphansand lepers. A new life was before him, and the 17-year old dove into it,working, studying and attaining U.S citizenship. He then brought his parentsand siblings to America.In 1982, he took a position as a systems architect. And in 1988 he traveled backto Indiato fulfill a courtship, and returned with a wife. America offered so much opportunity.Almost40 years later, Narayanan is sitting in an empty meeting room at the UnemploymentOffice in Trenton, NJ, shoes polished, shirt crisply pressed, stoically andbluntly talking about the old times. "For anyone who was willing to workhard, the United Stateswas the right place," he says dryly. "This has changed." At 57,he stands before the rubble of his American dream. For almost two years, he’sbeen unemployed, a new experience for him. Only in America.
No othertopic consumes the country as much as its historically high unemployment. 14 millionAmericans are registered as unemployed. Recently U.S. authorities reported theunemployment rate unchanged at 9.1%, with 6.2 million people seeking work formore than half a year, 4.5 million for more than a year. The average durationof unemployment reached a new record in September: 40.5 weeks – the longestaverage duration in the post-war period. People like Narayanan are among thelong-term unemployed: highly qualified, flexible, motivated professionals. Itis a development that has seriously unsettled the country. The belief in thesuperiority of the American way of life has been shaken. Federal ReserveChairman Ben Bernanke spoke recently of a "national crisis" and a"great recession" as a result of the country’s financial near-collapse,second only to its Great Depression, before World War II.  
Now in New York City, Washington,D.C. and other cities thousands have taken to the streets to protest - for morejobs and a fairer distribution of wealth. "There are too many unemployed,the distribution of income is too uneven," says Richard Fisher, Presidentand CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, TX, "We have a frustratedpeople, and I can understand the frustration."
America was unprepared for this crisis.Long-term unemployment was more recently a European phenomenon. Countries suchas Germany and Franceoffer generous unemployment compensation, and high-salaried employees, once onthe dole, find it difficult to return to work. The United States, however, has alwaysbeen attuned to the marketplace, and Americans have always been willing toreinvent themselves and to follow the pulse of the economy.
Whenchip building moved to Asia, Narayanan Movedinto the military avionics field with Bendix. But with the end of the Cold War,the U.S.military was ordering less combat aircraft.  The Internet boom waiting; and the aviationengineer became an IT entrepreneur, working as a consultant for Morgan Stanley,Credit Suisse and McGraw-Hill in New York City. He bought a house in Princeton Junction, NJand traveled to Italyfor vacations with his wife and daughter. He was comfortably middle class.But theboom turned out to be a bubble. Narayanan received his last large contract in2002, and almost 6 years later he was facing bankruptcy as a result of arestaurant investment. An increasing financial crisis had plunged the economyinto the abyss, and Narayanan closed the restaurant in 2009. This was a muchdifferent recession, deeper than in previous years.   "This time is not a ‘limited’ industrydownturn,” says Aaron Fichtner, head of the Statistics Department at the NewJersey Department of Labor. "This time, the demand in almost all sectorsis stalled." American households were in heavy debt; when these consumers tryto save, sales stagnate.Theweaknesses of the American system are showing now, and its need for governmentintervention. Congress has responded to the nation’s growing unemployment byextending unemployment benefits eligibility from its traditional 26-weekmaximum to a maximum of 99 weeks.
For hispart, President Barack Obama has made jobs his central political issue. Helobbied the Congress to extend the unemployment benefit eligibility to 99 weeksas part of his overall jobs bill. He’s proposed additional tax breaks to employersto hire workers and keep jobs in America. And he recommendsState-subsidized reduced working hours, something German companies did to avoidlayoffs during its financial crisis. But in the House of Representatives, theRepublican majority does not support Obama’s economic stimulus packages, givingit little chance of passing into law. This majority believes in limitedgovernment spending to strengthen the economy and create new jobs. The debateover the jobs market is already a hot topic in the upcoming presidentialelection. 
Narayananis disappointed by American politics and by Obama. He voted for Obama in 2008,because Obama promised "Change". He grumbles about Obama’s $800billion bailout rescue package for the financial industry. Narayanan feelscheated - from politics and from this country, which has given him so much.Now helooks on helplessly, as what he has achieved has now slipped through hisfingers. His savings are used up, and he can’t afford to refinance his homemortgage. The crisis has battered his marriage. Narayanan is ashamed. In acountry where losing a job still carries a big stigma, Eileen Appelbaum of theCenter for Economic and Policy Research in Washington explains: "InEuropean countries, there is a collective consciousness, but in America [itstill seems like]something is wrong with you if you lose your job."ButNarayanan has not yet given up completely. He wears his BlackBerry on his belt,ready to receive a call or answer an email. Every week he’s sent out hisresume, and is often invited in for interviews. He’s been labeled asoverqualified. That word “overqualified” is eating away at him. "I don’tthe same energy as before," he says.
A researcher at PrincetonUniversity did a long-term study onmore than 6000 unemployed in New Jersey that concluded that as personaldissatisfaction rose with the duration of one’s unemployment, the motivation tocontinue the job hunt decreased. That researcher was Alan Krueger, whom Obama namedChairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisors in August 2011. Whenhe was still in New Jersey, Krüger was afrequent visitor to the Department of Labor in Trenton.
"There’sa lot of truth to his findings,” says Mary Ellen Clark, the Department ofLabor’s Assistant Commissioner for Workforce Development, of the Kreuger study."For the long term unemployed, it is important that they remaininvolved." The Department is proud of the Professional Services Group(PSG), where unemployed professionals lead and attend workshops in which theylearn how they can write a better resume or use social networks like LinkedInfor networking and job hunting. Evidence of its success is a posted list ofnames on the wall of the PSG training area. It’s a list of “Landings”, names oflucky members who have found jobs.
PSG hasbecome like a second family to Narayanan. The volunteer members are verysupportive and encouraging. Narayanan has volunteered his computer skills tohelp design and maintain the group’s website. In its workshops, he’s foundvaluable job search advice. When he’s feeling discouraged, he visits the PSGoffice, where he shares a camaraderie with new friends who are in a similarsituation, and it helps, but he still misses being a part of a real everydayworkforce. 
But forthat dream to come true, he must be find work, any kind of work. He knows onlytoo well where many of the IT jobs have migrated, to cities in India like Calcutta.  "The United States is not Tech Nation anymore,”says Narayanan, "we have lost our advantage, "He is concerned for hisdaughter. She’s now 16 years old, almost as old as Narayanan was when he first cameto New York.  "I've always wanted for her to have iteasier", he says. And that she would never find herself as her father wasin March 1972: with nothing more than three dollars in her pocket.