Is it December already? The Challenge of Long-Term Unemployment

lee43067
Nov 27, 2025
5 min read

It's been a tough year job-hunting. You have applied for at least 200 jobs, and it's been brutal. Your funds are running low, you glance at the calendar, see the first Christmas ad, and feel your stomach drop. You’re already carrying the weight of long-term unemployment, and suddenly you realise a whole year has passed by with no income, and you have Christmas to get through, sound familiar?

Long-term unemployment in the UK, typically defined as being out of work for 12 months or more, doesn’t just strain the wallet. It corrodes routine, confidence, and sense of identity. Although today’s unemployment rate (5.0 per cent, with ~1.79 million people aged 16+ out of work) gives a snapshot of joblessness, that number masks who’s in the firing line.

A brief reality check. If you look at historical trends, the picture looks good, with ever-increasing numbers of older workers remaining in the workforce, but this masks a more concerning paradox: those who lose their jobs face more severe long-term employment issues. For people aged 50–64, the unemployment rate in 2025 is ~3.1%. Within that group, about 30% of those unemployed have been out of work for 12 months or more. For many older adults, long-term joblessness now represents not a brief detour but a protracted disruption.

That context reframes long-term unemployment. It’s not just about “bad luck” with the labour market; it’s often about structural shifts, identity disruption, and generational pressure. Here’s what’s actually going on, grounded in research and decades of labour-market psychology.

Your identity is taking a hit because work has become a core part of who we are

In the 1970s, identity was distributed: family, community, hobbies, union membership, and local networks. Work mattered, but it didn’t define everything.

Today, work is often the organising centre of life: the structure of your day, the source of your status, and sometimes the only place where you feel useful.

So, when employment falls away, the brain starts asking questions that feel existential:

Who am I? What do I contribute? Am I still relevant?

What helps psychologically: Rebuilding identity from the inside out, by reconnecting to strengths, values, routines and capabilities that exist outside job titles. People often rediscover aspects of themselves they forgot they had!

Chronic uncertainty triggers a stress response that looks like “low motivation,” but is really self-protection.

After three, six, or twelve months of searching, the brain starts to anticipate rejection. Cognitively, this activates:

Reduced executive functioning
narrowed attention
emotional overwhelm
difficulty sustaining long-term tasks

You’re not “lazy.” Your nervous system is responding to prolonged unpredictability.

What helps psychologically: Small, manageable actions that restore a feeling of control: micro-goals, structure, time-bounded tasks. Think restart, not push harder.

Loss of routine creates a drift that mimics depression even in people who’ve never been depressed.

Routine anchors mood. Without it, sleep becomes irregular, motivation drops, thinking becomes foggy, social withdrawal increases, and self-judgement ramps up. This drift is so common that researchers now view long-term unemployment as a significant psychological risk factor in its own right.

What helps psychologically: Reintroducing rhythm and structure before trying to solve big decisions. Morning rituals, gentle activity, social contact, tiny things, but stabilising.

Age changes the emotional stakes, and the brain knows it

Older workers are more likely to remain in work today than in the 70s or 80s, but when they leave, re-entry is more complex and slower.

Psychologically, the experience lands differently at 52 than at 32:

Perceived time pressure (“I’m running out of runway”)
comparison with peers who appear established
fear of being seen as “past it”
increased financial constraint
Societal age bias in hiring

Your brain responds to these pressures as threats, not imagined, but real.

What helps psychologically: Naming the pressure – think: tell the truth about what’s happening to you, because the brain calms down when experiences are made explicit. You might say, “I’m dealing with uncertainty that would overwhelm anyone.”

Reducing self-blame. People assume the problem is internal: I’m not good enough, I’ve lost value, I must be doing something wrong. But when you look at the evidence, age bias is real, algorithmic filtering removes CVs before a human sees them, and the labour market is structurally narrower in mid-life. Instead of “I’m being rejected,” try: “This process is filtering thousands of people, I’m one of many, not singled out.”

Understanding that what feels personal is structural. When an older worker doesn’t get a job, it feels like a judgment on who they are. The reality is That Employers statistically favour younger candidates even when older candidates are equally or more qualified. Wage expectations (even modest ones) make older workers seem “expensive,” even if that isn’t true. A 52-year-old isn’t competing with five people, they’re competing with hundreds due to algorithmic application systems. Instead of “I’m failing to get a job,” the more accurate framing becomes: “I’m navigating a labour market that wasn’t designed with people like me in mind.”

Christmas amplifies everything: loss, comparison, uncertainty, and shame

Even people who feel stable often find Christmas emotionally intensified. For someone unemployed:

It’s a situational amplifier, not a personal failing.

What helps psychologically: Setting emotional boundaries, rehearsing difficult conversations, creating small grounding rituals, and focusing on moments of meaning rather than the season's performance.

Hope becomes fragile, not because of pessimism, but because the brain stops expecting reward.

After repeated rejection, the brain rewires expectations to avoid disappointment. This is survival logic, not negativity. But it can narrow options, reduce risk-taking, and intensify self-criticism.

What helps psychologically: What psychologists call “Earned Hope”:

Rebuilding confidence through tiny wins, e.g. calling one person rather than trying to “network”.
Small experiments, e.g. try a different approach to applications, ask someone for a 10-minute conversation, test a new weekly routine,
Develop your mental library containing concrete evidence of capability, what psychologists call “self-efficacy cues”. You might recall a task you did well at work, a project you completed, or a skill you used without noticing. When you're feeling fragile, indulge yourself in one of your cues.

Bringing it together

When you place all of this against the historical backdrop of higher employment overall, fewer traditional exit routes, more age-based barriers, and greater social expectations, it becomes obvious why so many older adults feel overwhelmed today.

None of this is a sign of inadequacy. It’s a predictable psychological response to a very modern kind of pressure.

And the good news is there are ways to navigate it with dignity, steadiness, and clarity; even through Christmas.

At Mind Works, we offer personalised psychological support while you’re navigating this part of your life. You’re welcome to reach out. I’m always happy to talk.