Recession and the Anxious Class...
While the recession of the early 90’s took a heavy toll on white-collar workers, this one seems to have institutionalized the phenomenon. Advanced degrees, no matter how prestigious, offer little protection. The economy is grim nationwide, but the picture in New York City is especially bleak. Since the end of 2000 the media-and-communications sector has cut 15 percent of its jobs, telecommunications 27 percent, advertising 25 percent (the computer industry 41 percent). Eighteen percent of jobs on Wall Street have been slashed, and firms continue to lay people off. Given the delirium with which most high-tech jobs were first created, there’s no reason to believe that many of them — and the jobs in other sectors that they generated — will come back anytime soon.

By the numbers, women have been hit as hard as men, but white-collar men tend to experience unemployment differently, organizational psychologists say. For most women, survival trumps ego; they simply adapt and find some job. For men, grappling with joblessness inevitably entails surrendering an idea of who they are — or who others thought they were.