I attended my appointment at Working Links on tuesday and completed around one and a half hours of jobsearch. Although the jobcentre would regard six months as being long term unemployed I would regard long term as at least two years. I was reading an article about a survey that was done amongst employers in 2006 before the economic crash. One in three of the employers who replied said that they would not employ a long term unemployed person under any circumstances. As we now have more unemployed it's likely those employers are still of that mentality. A person could be unemployed for countless reasons but it shows that once you reach a certain time on benefits a third of employers won't touch you with a barge pole. I have been unemployed for quite a while now and the most infuriating thing I find is that I have applied for many jobs that are advertised repeatedly and never given a chance. Clearly they have not found the right person for the job but they won't give me a chance. Maybe they are the one in three employers who refuse to bite the bullet and give a long term unemployed person a chance. Just like everyone else I have been on many schemes and had my CV changed by all these so called experts and given cover letters that are supposed to be the best and still they don't achieve the aim of obtaining interviews. If I happen to be living in an area where the employers don't like long termers then I really don't have any hope of finding employment. At least for now I only have to attend Working Links once a week and that gives me two entries a fortnight for my booklet I have to hand the jobcentre when I sign. That's my one in three, now all I have to find is at least four jobs to apply for to make up my six efforts. I will probably apply for a lot more than four but the Working Links attendances do help make up the numbers.