Careers: The unemployed EE: At survey time, more than one quarter of those unemployed had been out of work for more than six months

In the face of the severe recession that has nearly paralyzed U.S. business for some time now — a recession that has, at the time of writing, produced a 9.2-percent unemployment rate in the U.S. — IEEE has been anxiously monitoring the employment status of its members through a variety of programs. Fearing major dislocations that could make the aerospace industry débacle of the early Seventies seem like child's play, the Institute has, among other efforts, embarked on a program of monthly postcard surveys to limited samples of the membership. So far, these surveys have indicated a rising unemployment curve (at time of writing, 3.1 percent). However, financial constraints on the Institute have prevented it from developing in these postcard surveys as highly reliable an indicator of unemployment as might have been desired. Furthermore, even if the most recent percentage is valid, it is far below the national one — and considerably less than what may have been feared by the Institute's Directors. Nevertheless, it is serious, especially to those EEs who constitute the percentage.