# What's the longest you've been unemployed?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-youve-been-unemployed/312880
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [July 17, 2005, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-youve-been-unemployed/312880 "2005-07-17T17:03:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Plan\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plan_B)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2005, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-youve-been-unemployed/312880/21 "2005-07-20T03:52:14Z")
I took some time off after college to travel so I guess I shouldn’t count that. When I came back I got my first job pretty quickly and even found some per diem work immediately for the days that I didn’t have interviews and for when I was waiting for my employer to finish the paperwork so I could start.
As RickJay said…
---
### Author:  [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2005, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-youve-been-unemployed/312880/22 "2005-07-20T05:45:12Z")
Three months or 5-1/2 months, depending on how you count it.
I got laid off from my programming job in April of 2003. I got re-hired (by my old company, now doing better) beginning immediately after Labor Day that same year. If they wouldn’t have been in a position (or had a desire) to re-hire me, I don’t know how long I’d have been jobless.
From late June until Labor Day I took a job as a supermarket check-out clerk to make ends meet. I suppose that means that during that time I wasn’t technically “unemployed,” but I sure as heck didn’t feel like I was employed.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-youve-been-unemployed/312880.md?page=1)