50 Quotes on Unemployment We Can All Relate To

If you are currently or have ever dealt with being unemployed, these Quotes on Unemployment are perfect for you.

Unemployment is when you are available to work but don’t have a job and therefore are not earning income.

In the United States, there are several main reasons for unemployment:

• Technological Improvements – technology sometimes replaces workers
• Recessions – the economy takes a hit, and people are laid off or fired from their jobs
• Quitting – quitting to pursue another career, or if circumstances are so dire that the employee will not continue their position
• Job Outsourcing – your organization may choose to outsource your job to another country or to a contractor that can save the company money

There are many other reasons for unemployment, too.

Check out these Quotes on Unemployment to learn more about being unemployed.

Thought-Provoking Quotes on Unemployment

These thought-provoking unemployment quotes will make you think differently about being jobless.

1. “The hardest work in the world is being out of work.” — Whitney M. Young

2. “Being unemployed is the true test of who you really are.” — Ernie J. Zelinski

3. “Hunger is not the worst feature of unemployment; idleness is.” — William Barrett

4. “Unemployment is of vital importance, particularly to the unemployed.” — Edward Heath

5. “The longer our graduation lines are today, the shorter our unemployment lines will be tomorrow.” — George H. W. Bush

6. “Unemployment, foreclosures, bankruptcy – the cure is not more government spending, but helping businesses create jobs.” — Brian Sandoval

7. “Unemployment is like a headache or a high temperature – unpleasant and exhausting but not carrying in itself any explanation of its cause.” — William Beveridge

8. “Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

9. “No country, however rich, can afford the waste of its human resources. Demoralization caused by vast unemployment is our greatest extravagance.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt

10. “Our whole economy and society is already being changed by the fact that we have increasing unemployment, mass unemployment, and that’s what we’re facing in the future because of increasing automation.” — Gemma Chan

Relatable Unemployment Quotes

Enjoy these relatable unemployment quotes for this challenging time.

11. “I never thought unemployment would happen to me.” — Vicki Nash

12. “Our unemployment is too high. Our poverty is too high.” — Randall Woodfin

13. “When more and more people are thrown out of work, unemployment results.” — Calvin Coolidge

14. “Of all the aspects of social misery, nothing is so heartbreaking as unemployment.” — Jane Addams

15. “When you lose your job, the unemployment rate isn’t four percent, it’s 100 percent.” — Thomas Friedman

16. “It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose yours.” — Harry S. Truman

17. “I do not believe we can repair the basic fabric of society until people who are willing to work have work.” — Bill Clinton

18. “We need to reform our job training programs, especially our unemployment system, and transform it into a reemployment system.” — Bill Clinton

19. “No, I didn’t really lose my job. I know where my job is … it’s just that when I go there, there’s this new guy doing it.” — Bobcat Goldthwait

20. “When unemployment is low, it becomes more and more difficult to get the labor force to grow faster because so many have already found a job.” — Raymond Sfeir

Quotes on Unemployment About Society

Here are some unemployment quotes about society.

21. “It is well known that unemployment benefits raise unemployment durations.” — Raj Chetty

22. “Unemployment benefits are creating jobs faster than practically any other program.” — Nancy Pelosi

23. “Any system of economics is bankrupt if it sees either value or virtue in unemployment.”  — Jimmy Carter

24. “Unemployment is rarely considered desirable except by those who have not experienced it.” — John Kenneth Galbraith

25. “If you pay people not to work and tax them when they do, don’t be surprised if you get unemployment.” — Milton Friedman

26. “Long-term unemployment can make any worker progressively less employable, even after the economy strengthens.” — Janet Yellen

27. “There is no easy fix for youth unemployment. Partnership between the public and private sectors can make a big difference.” — Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

28. “Depressions and mass unemployment are not caused by the free market but by government interference in the economy.” — Ludwig von Mises

29. “The unemployment rate has effectively not gone down from where it was at the peak of the recession. The only reason it’s gone technically from 10 percent to 8 percent is so many people are discouraged and have quit work.” — Jim Talent

30. “Generous unemployment benefits can increase both structural and frictional unemployment. So government policies intended to help workers can have the undesirable side effect of raising the natural rate of unemployment.” — Paul Krugman

Motivational Quotes on Unemployment

Check out these motivational unemployment quotes!

31. “My dad didn’t riot. He got on his bike and looked for work.” — Norman Tebbit

32. “Your financial situation is a constantly changing thing.” — Michelle Singletary

33. “It’s not how many people are unemployed. It’s how many people are actively looking for a job.” — Suze Orman

34. “Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up.” — Michael Jordan

35. “The slogan’ press on’ has solved and will always solve the problems of the human race.” — Calvin Coolidge

36. “Every experience in your life is being orchestrated to teach you something you need to know to move forward.” — Brian Tracy

37. “Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell ’em, ‘Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it.” — Theodore Roosevelt

38. “I always tell actors, ‘Don’t think of it as unemployment when you don’t have a job. You have to think of it as being in preparation for your next job.’” — Virginia Madsen

39. “Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

40. “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” — Alexander Graham Bell

More Unemployment Quotes

Take a look at this final batch of unemployment quotes.

41. “Unemployment is a reproach to a democratic government.” — Joan Robinson

42. “The U.S. unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been in nearly seven years.” — Conan O’ Brien

43. “Continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work.” — Jon Kyl

44. “Our economy continues to struggle with slow economic growth, high unemployment, and stagnant wages.” — John Boehner

45. “The employment rates are in very bad shape. We vastly underestimate the unemployment.” — Immanuel Wallerstein

46. “Like many places across the country, Wisconsin lost more than 100,000 jobs from 2008 to 2010. Unemployment during that time topped out at over 9%.” — Scott Walker

47. “I think, you know, when you’re an actor who’s had periods of unemployment, it makes you feel really good to have a job – to say that you’re expected somewhere, do you know what I mean?” — Gillian Jacobs

48. “More than ever before, we need to learn and apply the principles of economic self-reliance. We do not know when the crisis involving sickness or unemployment may affect our own circumstances.” — Ezra Taft Benson

49. “The unemployment rate among the young in the United States is still very disconcerting, although we all know it’s nowhere near as bad as it is in some of the European countries, where in some places it approaches 50 percent.” — Anna Quindlen

50. “Unemployment, with its injustice for the man who seeks and thirsts for employment, who begs for labor and cannot get it, and who is punished for failure he is not responsible for by the starvation of his children–that torture is something that private enterprise ought to remedy for its own sake.” — David Llyod George

How Can I Keep From Being Unemployed?

While there are no surefire ways to ensure you will never experience unemployment, there are things you can do to decrease your chance of experiencing unemployment.

Things like continuous training, staying abreast of new technology, showing up on time, and having a positive attitude go a long way to ensuring you will be employed.

Please share these Quotes on Unemployment with your friends and family and post any comments about unemployment in the comment section below.