We work with our customers to find the right talent and it is a struggle at times. Often they want to retreat to a hire based mainly on experience. I know we are in for a long haul when the first question regarding a candidate involves “is he currently working?”

Unfortunately, conventional wisdom often takes a long time to change.

My problem is that I’ve been hunting for work for a very long time. I’m a stay-at-home dad with a very young son (born 16 August ’07) and I was laid off from a temp assignment about a month before he was born. I’ve basically been hunting for a permanent position while temping for almost four years, and the fact of the matter is that I really feel as though I am unemployable. Those who have actually employed me have been pretty happy with me, but I’m lousy at self-promotion. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to justify the gaping holes in my resume to employers.

Personally, I think a lot of HR management consists of CYA activities like “Whatever you do NEVER EVER hire a guy who’s unemployed,” and “Yeah, sure, call him in for a job interview and waste his time, but DON’T HIRE him–no one else has, and if you go wrong by violating the conventional wisdom, you’re going to get a guided tour of the world of hurt.”

And unemployed people are one category of unfortunates (not the only one, of course) for which it’s assumed there’s no excuse. I’d be better off if you thought I was a founder and chair of NAMBLA as well as a serial ax murderer and seller of nuclear secrets to the North Koreans and al-Qaeda. I am none of those things, but I lack the brilliance at self-promotion that Reston Bolles, et. al. assumes I ought to have.

You seem to be a reasonably sane person. But you know the labor market is actually pretty grim when unemployed people are literally unemploy-able.