Job seekers in line for a job fair in New York City. Shannon Stapleton/Reuters/Landov

From office managers and Ph.D.s to journalists and entertainment producers, the ranks of the long-term unemployed number more than 3.9 million. And each week more of them lose their benefits. Jennifer Taub hopes the company she recently interviewed with decides to actually hire her for a job. John Griswold hopes he can find a job with a music tour after losing both his position managing an events center and his unemployment benefits. Mary Miller would take considerably less than she made at her last bookkeeping job. Everyone has her own unique story. But in the meantime, there are bills to pay, something that can require difficult choices or tough sacrifices. Taub is dipping into savings; Griswold’s phone was shut off because he couldn’t pay the bill. Miller’s Social Security covers only her mortgage — she needs to buy food and pay utilities. The lifeline of long-term unemployment benefits ended for at least 1.5 million Americans at the end of December, and more will see their payments cut each week that Congress fails to act. Almost 38 percent of the unemployed had been out of work for 27 weeks or more as of December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While the unemployment rate is down to 6.7 percent from 10 percent in October 2008, at the height of the recession, 10.4 million people remained out of work in December. The Great Recession may be over, but Josh Mitchell, a research economist at the Urban Institute, said the recovery hasn’t been strong enough to improve the employment outlook. “The single biggest thing is to get overall economic growth going at a faster pace,” Mitchell said. Congress has contributed to the slow growth, Mitchell said, with standoffs over the debt ceiling, the expiration of the payroll tax cut and across-the-board federal spending cuts brought on by sequestration. “Those things have all slowed the economy unnecessarily,” he said.

Unemployed Massachusetts resident Jennifer Taub. For many Americans, the standoff over extended unemployment benefits is more personal. Jennifer Taub never expected to be out of work for more than a few months when she was laid off from her management job at a nonprofit last May. She has a doctorate in clinical psychology and a work history in research and administration. But she learned the harsh news at an employment workshop in late December. “They approved me through March, then I found out Dec. 27 it was ending immediately,” said the 44-year-old single mother from Jamaica Plain, Mass. Traditional unemployment benefits last 26 weeks, half a year. But Congress extended those benefits during the recession as more workers found it harder to find jobs. Some states also offer extended benefits. Taub depended on the benefits to help pay for health insurance for herself and her son. Now she’s putting off expenses and dipping into savings. “I have accepted financial help from my family to help with some of my son’s needs, which I don’t like to do,” she said. “I’ve got to have Internet because I’ve got to look for work … I’m putting off taking a pet to the vet to get it fixed. The car has a repair that I’m going to need to get done before I get it inspected again. There’s more and more of those kinds of expenses that are now building up, the three- and four-hundred-dollar expenses." For Caroline Trude-Rede, 39, the sudden end to her benefits means selling some possessions on eBay and pawning others. “I’ve already hit the pawnshop this month and pawned a necklace for $500, which replaced the $500 that would have come in from unemployment,” she said. It’s even worse for John Griswold, a 61-year-old temporarily living with a friend in Mill Valley, Calif. In an email, he acknowledged having no savings after a life working in the entertainment industry, first with touring groups and most recently spending five years as director of an events center, where he lost his job. “I made money when I worked but would spend money while waiting for the next tour,” he wrote.

A political quandary

The House and Senate returned from vacation in January and continued to debate extending unemployment payments. A compromise in the Senate failed just before Congress recessed for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. That angered Lisa Griffis, a 54-year-old journalist laid off last summer whose unemployment benefits will run out in a month if Congress fails to act. “I’m furious,” she said. “They’re not going to vote …They’re going on recess … It’s infuriating.” Griffis is one of many voicing their displeasure on a Facebook page set up by Democrats on the House Ways & Means Committee. In the Senate, some Republicans have joined Democrats in pressing for a benefits extension. But House GOP leaders say the cost of any extension — $6.4 billion for three months — must be offset by budget cuts elsewhere. At one point, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., offered to support the extension in exchange for a one-year delay of the requirement that individuals buy health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. McConnell’s offer, too, angered Griffis. But she also fears the public is “over” this debate — a sad case of compassion fatigue. “I think people are turning a deaf ear to the unemployed,” she said. “The problem has been so systemic for so many years now.” Trude-Rede’s journey began with a layoff in 2010 and a decision to go back to school for an associate’s degree in motion graphics. In the meantime, her husband lost his job. A six-month theme-park internship and a new degree have yet to lead to a job for the Orlando, Fla., woman. “I’ve had a few interviews,” she said. “It’s usually they just need a little more experience with the graphics. I’ve been told I’m too versatile, that I need to narrow down the scope of things, that I’m not focused because I know how to do so many things. There’s a lot of things I don’t get interviewed for that I’m totally qualified for.” Taub, too, has been a finalist for several jobs but hasn’t been hired. In at least one instance, the employer postponed hiring because federal funding was uncertain. “The hardest part for me is, it’s just demoralizing,” Taub said. “It makes it very hard to keep putting on my game face in interviews and being positive.”

'Really hard to get a job'

Griswold holds out hope that he’ll find work in coming months. “I have been applying for touring jobs or venue management positions,” he wrote. “I had a few near misses. The touring business will start ramping up in the spring so I remain optimistic to finding work.” Then there’s Mary Miller, a Golden, Colo., woman who lost her job as a nursing-home business office manager in December 2012, months after she broke her hip at work. Miller is 71, and shares her home with two 20-something grandchildren. “My Social Security would cover the mortgage, but it wouldn’t cover anything else,” Miller said. She’s convinced she lost her job because of her age — and that it’s also hindering her job search. “I’m 71; it’s really hard to get a job,” she said. “What you usually get is, ‘Oh, you’re far too qualified for this position.’” Still, she’s updated her resume for the first time in 30 years with help from the American Job Center, a government program that offers training and other services to job seekers in three Colorado counties. Miller made almost $23 at her old job, but now she’d settle for a bookkeeping job that paid less, “anything that would bring in $14 or $15 an hour.” While Miller searches for a job similar to the one she lost, Griffis is trying to reinvent herself after a 35-year career in newspapers. She was one of 50 journalists laid off by the Cleveland Plain Dealer last July, and the newspaper industry continues to suffer because of digital competition. She, too, fears her age works against her in the job hunt. “I had applied for this nonprofit and was in the top two candidates,” she said. “In the interview I was asked the question of whether I could work with people in their 20s … A lot of employers are going with kids right out of college and then having to replace them every year.” President Barack Obama has repeatedly referred to his desire to renew long-term unemployment benefits and appealed to business leaders to help out with the problem. But he’s been criticized by some for not pushing hard enough for the renewal.

'We're not slackers'