America’s unemployment rate remains unchanged at 9.5 percent and that’s just counting those who are actively searching for employment. Another 16.5 percent of American workers are underemployed, working part-time or temporary jobs when they would prefer full-time work. Many economists are now saying that it will take years for America to recover the jobs lost during the recession and that many Americans may even see negative movement in their salaries due to the crowded and highly competitive job market. But what this ultimately means is that more and more Americans will choose to file bankruptcy because of their inability to find work or to demand compensation that is enough to cover their outstanding debts and other financial obligations. Let’s take a look at the picture of unemployment and bankruptcy in America; 14.6 million people were looking for work in July but only about 70,000 jobs were created at the same time. Nearly half of all unemployed workers remain unemployed for 12 months are longer with their unemployment benefits expiring after 99 weeks. How can these workers realistically survive without the help of bankruptcy? Many of them can’t survive without bankruptcy because creditors have become relentless in their efforts to collect on delinquent debts. At this point, as we have mentioned in a previous post, some creditors are even manipulating the court system to collect on debts by failing to inform debtors when they are being sued which can result in imprisonment of the debtor for contempt of court after failing to show for court ordered hearing. At least with bankruptcy debtors who are suffering from long-term unemployment can free themselves from the double stress of having large debts they are simply unable to repay and creditors who are uncompromising and ruthless.