Fourteen months and counting. That's how long S. Joel Chaney has been out of work.

An electrical engineer with considerable IT experience, he continues to send out five resumes a week, even for jobs paying less than half of what he used to make.

"At this point, I just want to work," said Chaney, 44, of Avon Lake, one of a record number of long-term unemployed nationwide. "If I got a job making between $30-35,000 on a help desk doing tech support, I'd be happy. Companies don't believe you when you say that."

The average length of unemployment for American workers in October was nearly 27 weeks -- more than six months, the longest since the Labor Department started to keep track in 1948. The last time the average was even remotely that high was during the last major recession in the early 1980s. In July 1983, the average length of unemployment was 21 weeks.

People like Chaney are considered long-term unemployed because they have been out of work at least 27 weeks. In October nearly 36 percent of all jobless workers were considered among the long-term unemployed, according to an analysis by the National Employment Law Project, or NELP, a research and advocacy group. The second highest on record was 26 percent in 1983.

Chaney is part of The Plain Dealer's Help Wanted series, which is following 88 Northeast Ohioans who spent at least part of 2009 unemployed. Many of them were elated when they learned that Congress voted this month to extend unemployment benefits. For high unemployment states like Ohio, where the latest unemployment rate was 10.5 percent in October, that meant adding 20 weeks of benefits to the existing 79 weeks.

For the most part, a person receiving jobless benefits would have to exhaust them by Dec. 26, 2009, in order to qualify.

Chaney's benefits will run out in January. Nancy Theodosion, 53, of Newbury Township, who was laid off in November 2008 as a water softener valve assembler, won't exhaust her benefits until early next year as well. So neither is likely to qualify for the extension.

Theodosion believes the extension should have included everyone receiving unemployment compensation at the time the law was enacted, because the economy, especially in places like Ohio, is still sputtering.

But, "I'd rather work than get unemployment," Theodosion said.

The benefits of about 500,000 Ohioans are scheduled to expire in 2010, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. About 70,000 with benefits expiring by the 2009 deadline are expected to be eligible for the extension.

The Plain Dealer is following 88 recently unemployed Northeast Ohioans during an extended series called "Help Wanted" that will explore their hopes and fears, defeats and triumphs as they search for work in this down economy.

Do you have a job to offer? E-mail: metrodesk@plaind.com

Help Wanted Stories

'Help Wanted' on WCPN, WVIZ

The Plain Dealer is collaborating with WCPN FM/90.3 and WVIZ Channel 25 Ideastream on the "Help Wanted" series. Throughout the year, there will be multiple reports, interviews, videos and discussions about the experiences of the jobless.

Hirschel Kasper, an economics professor at Oberlin College, said competing interests must be weighed in deciding whether to extend unemployment benefits, especially with the early signs of a recovery under way.

Does government keep extending them, an official acknowledgement that finding a job is still difficult? Or does government let them expire, signaling that the economy is improving and that unemployed workers should consider taking jobs they don't necessarily want.

Christine Riordan, a NELP policy analyst, said her group believes Congress should extend unemployment benefits through 2010 and continue a $25 weekly increase included provided in the stimulus act.

"We need to ensure the safety net," she said. "Congress needs to reauthorize extensions before the end of the year."

The NELP analysis showed that long-term unemployed in this recession had extended to groups usually spared in other economic downturns. More white men. More white collar workers. More people ages 25 to 45, considered prime working age -- the group employers are most apt to hire.

Most of the Help Wanted participants never thought they would have reached the point when an unemployment check would become so important to them. The longer you go without work, the greater the chance of depleting savings, severance and even 401(k) accounts.

Theodosion said she relies on her weekly payment of nearly $200 to buy groceries. Chaney said he is able to survive on a check of about $375 only because he gave up his apartment and moved in with his girlfriend.

Many had dealt with unemployment over the years, but never for this long. Chaney, laid off in 1998 and 2004, was able to find a job in about six months both times. Richard Yarmusch, 63, a sales analyst from Parma, has been laid off since March 2008. He was last laid off in 2002 and found a job in a few weeks. The longest he had ever been laid off was for five months in 1988.

Joe Gordon, 61, of Cleveland was laid off in December 2008 as an artist/illustrator at American Greetings Corp., where he had worked for about 40 years.

"I never thought I would be unemployed this long," he said. "I thought all I had to do was work for less money or be willing to take a job that was less creative than what I had been doing. By summer it hit me: This may go on for some time."

Their experiences with long-term unemployment have left many of them frustrated. They had always played by the rules. They got education or specialized training. They were loyal employees.

Their reward? Secure careers. Until now.

"I try to be optimistic, behind all of that I am still angry," Yarmusch said.

He's angry that all he wanted to do was work a few year before retiring -- and now probably won't be able to do that. He's angry that prospective employers overlook his experience and dwell on his age. He's angry about the whole subprime mortgage meltdown that set the economy into a tailspin and indirectly cost him his job.

He's even angry that no one seems to be paying the price.

"I don't know their names," Yarmusch said. "I don't know their faces -- but those on the Hill in Washington, those in banks and mortgage companies and even homeowners who applied for loans and knew they had no money. I will never be satisfied until someone comes up and says these people are criminals for what they've done to the honest people in this country!"

Justice Hill went to work for MLB.com in 2001 when the Web site, owned by major league baseball, was just getting started. Back then, he said, it was rare for an experienced sports editor like himself to move from a newspaper to online. He thought he would have been rewarded for showing such faith.

But in December 2008, Hill, 57, was laid off.

"There was no loyalty to people who were there when it started," he said. "I'm not mad about it. It is a realization that in this economic climate you have to look out for No. 1 because if you look out for the team, you end up getting blind-sided."

Several say they wonder whether the government could have done anything to have prevented the Great Recession and prevented them from becoming economic casualties. They wonder whether companies would have been so apt to lay off employees if governmental policies would have been in place discouraging them.

Theodosion said the government should have given companies incentives to offer early retirement packages to workers who only remained in the workplace waiting to reach retirement age.

Kasper, the Oberlin College professor, said it is an idea worth exploring.

That sounds good to Theodosion, but she, like other long-term unemployed, have to first deal with more immediate issues. Some, like her, are in a race to get a job before their unemployment runs out. Others are like Gordon, the laid-off artist, fearing that Social Security will be their only option. He worries that his 62th birthday in February will come before a job offer.

Kasper wants to remind them that during the past 12 months, 50 million people were hired.

But then 55 million others lost jobs.

Computer Assisted Reporting Editor Rich Exner contributed to this report.