November 6, 2025

By Charlotte Cowles

Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Getty Images

The unemployment rate is ticking up, and long-term unemployment — the share of jobless people who have been out of work for six months or more — is at a three-year high. For those living in the nightmare of applying for jobs every day, only to receive a stream of rejections (mostly from AI bots, to add insult to injury), it’s devastating both financially and mentally. Wide-ranging research finds that long-term unemployment correlates with depression, anxiety, heart disease, and other illnesses. It also puts incredible stress on a marriage. For spouses of unemployed people who are suddenly thrust into the role of sole breadwinner, therapist, career coach, and cheerleader, it can be an impossible position. Here, three women — whose names have been changed to protect their privacy — share what it’s been like to hold down the fort while their husbands struggle for months (or years) to find work.

Gossip, revelations, and timelines.

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