Arabic version: باحثون عن عمل يوقفون البحث مع تراجع المشاركة في القوى العاملة

According to Cnbc, discouraged job seekers are stepping back from the labor market after difficult searches, adding to concerns about falling labor force participation. Dan Coda, a 40-year-old in Durham, North Carolina, stopped looking in June after he was laid off around December 2025 and spent more than 300 hours applying and interviewing for technical program or project management roles.

Coda said he submitted dozens of applications, heard back about roughly 15 potential positions and went through multiple interview rounds without securing a job. “The market wore me down,” he said. Data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed announced layoffs in January reached a level not seen since 2009, while Coda described a candidate pool flooded by workers affected by mass layoffs.

The labor force participation rate has been trending downward since the turn of the millennium, influenced by an aging population and fewer young people entering the workforce. June recorded the largest one-month decline in participation among workers ages 25 to 54, excluding the Covid-19 pandemic, since June 1976. About 720,000 people stopped working or seeking work from May to June, according to the St. Louis Fed, though Navy Federal Credit Union chief economist Heather Long said the figures could later be revised downward.

Mental health pressures can also contribute to pauses in job searches. An April Resume Genius survey of 1,000 active U.S. job seekers found about half said searching hurt their mental health because of rejection, limited responses, financial stress and declining motivation. Haina, 33, paused her U.S. search in May and returned to Inner Mongolia, China, after being laid off from a New York marketing analytics role in November 2025 and encountering difficulties finding an employer able to accommodate her H-1B visa needs.

Others are turning to education. Celine Wang, 26, began a New York City dental hygiene program in May after a year of job hunting following her departure from a design agency role in 2024. She expects to earn an associate of applied science by the end of 2027. Coda and his wife plan to give his self-described sabbatical up to a year, during which he is focusing on being present for their 3-year-old.