Technical-Professional Unemployment: Middle-class Adaptability to Personal Crisis

Previous research generally indicates that unemployment is damaging to self-esteem and morale with attendant economic deprivations. Research among the middleclass unemployed is quite rare and is inconclusive as to the specific impact of unemployment on members of this stratum. In this study, interviews with one hundred unemployed male technical-professionals during the aerospace-defense-electronics recession of early 1972 revealed that for many, unemployment was less stressful than expected. The expression of a positive attitude toward job loss by 48 percent of the sample became a subject of special interest. The reason most frequently given for having a positive attitude toward job loss was that it represented an opportunity to escape from an undesirable job. Being laid off apparently made a decision that many unemployed men had considered but had not brought themselves to make prior to the layoff. Additional variables which might help to explain the high percentage of men expressing a positive attitude toward job loss are discussed. Especially important are factors which taken together enhance the adaptability of these middle-class professionals to their unemployment by softening its financial impact.