According to her research, addressing traumatic job loss requires a combination of dealing with the problems and the situation. At the same time, and this is where the reserves come into play, you have to be able to deal with the symptoms of this highly stressful situation. It's extremely stressful to look for a job under the best of circumstances and these people have the worst of circumstances. So in order to do these very stressful things, you have to have these financial, social and personal reserves. According to her research, older workers close to retirement are likely to try and weather the situation until pension and Social Security benefits kick in.
Younger workers are likely to pick up and leave.
The people most at risk are workers in their middle years, between 40 and 60 years of age. People get into this place facing a very tough situation and if there isn't any hope, then it's very easy to just fall off the map and many of us would under those circumstances. Leana knows these people from her experiences in Pittsburgh. I think there's going to be a whole group of them sitting around waiting to get old. They will just have a declining standard of living and try to hold out until they are old enough to receive better pensions and better benefits.