For unemployed, Labor Day is hardly a holiday

updated 3:04 p.m. ET Sept. 7, 2009

WASHINGTON - Every day it's a battle. The nearly 15 million unemployed Americans won't enjoy Labor Day as a relaxing respite from work. Instead, they'll once again need to prepare to get up, hit the pavement and keep hunting for a job.

As the jobless rate nears 10 percent, even those fortunate enough to be employed fret about keeping their jobs. But for those without them, it's a daily struggle with emotional and economic distress.

"It's hard to maintain your focus that you're a valuable member of society when you go three months and nobody really wants to employ you," says David O'Bryan, 59, of Barre, Vt.

To cope with the stress, O'Bryan jots down his thoughts in a journal he carries around. He's seeking a new career in the education field. In one recent entry, he wrote:

"I'm finding the process of trying to get into schools both tedious and frustrating. I wish I could have some concrete feedback on why I'm not being hired. Overweight? No para-educator certificate in effect? No confidence in my ability to perform the job?"

The economy is showing signs of being on the mend. Yet that's hardly reassuring to the unemployed this Labor Day weekend. The job market is in lousy shape and will stay that way for a while.

The nation's jobless rate jumped to a 26-year high of 9.7 percent in August from 9.4 percent in July. It's expected to top 10 percent this year and keep climbing into part of next year before falling back. The post-World War II high was 10.8 percent at the end of 1982.

Toby Talbot / AP "It's hard to maintain your focus that you're a valuable member of society when you go three months and nobody really wants to employ you," says David O'Bryan.

And it could take four years or more for the unemployment rate to fall back down to a normal level of about 5 percent.

Gregory Przybylski, 46, of suburban Milwaukee has grown increasingly anxious since losing his job as a machine operator in March 2008.

"It's getting scary," said Przybylski, a bachelor who has spent the past several months studying for a high school equivalency degree. "I'm just hoping to be working by Christmas."

Przybylski said he's using his time to study and improve himself so he'll be ready once the economy turns around. But he fears being thrust into a new career after spending so many years as a machinist.

"I've been doing this since 1980 — that's what I know," he said, slowly shaking his head.

"It's stressful whether you have a job or not," says Patricia Drentea, associate professor of sociology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. "If you are out of a job, it can be demoralizing to know that the tide has not yet turned. For those still in jobs, there is the constant worry that there is going to be more layoffs."

The worst recession since World War II has claimed a net total of 6.9 million jobs — and more losses are expected, casting a pall over this year's Labor Day.

The strains of rising unemployment are making people — those with jobs and those without — more frugal. And they're likely to remain cautious spenders in coming months, crimping the budding economic recovery.

Ethan Fierro of Chicago has managed to survive a round of layoffs at his accounting firm. But he's not taking his job for granted and is clamping down on the household budget, and cutting out the little extras.

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