In recent years a growing number of Americans have experienced threat of job loss or unemployment. In 1992, percentage of unemployed people seeking work rose to 7.4 percent from 5.5 percent in 1990 (U.S. Bureau of Census, 1994). Although this rate has since declined, economy seems far from robust. Within this uncertain job environment, discussions of government policies toward unemployed workers, particularly those relating to length and coverage of unemployment benefits, take on great immediacy. Many believe that a major industrial transformation is under way involving downsizing and restructuring of businesses bent on survival (Ferman & Gardner, 1979; Hansen, 1988). This change is most apparent in areas of country with shrinking populations and dying industries. In these communities, being laid off or fired often triggers a downward economic spiral that may be irreversible because of structural changes in workplace. Ferman and Gardner (1979) referred to this downward occupational pattern as skidding and viewed it as common among U.S. industrial workers. In contrast to more educated professionals who could, at least until recently, anticipate a return to their previous living standard once they obtained a new position, blue-collar workers experiencing structural unemployment often face a future of reduced economic circumstances and need to find new occupational opportunities (Hansen, 1988). Between 1979 and 1984, one in four displaced workers were out of work for over a year (Biegel, Cunningham, Yamatani, & Martz, 1989). This article examines economic resources used by a large group of displaced workers coping with job loss for varying lengths of time. It reports extent of their reliance on a broad range of economic resources, including government assistance programs, private charities, and support from family and friends. Inasmuch as government support, especially unemployment benefits, may be viewed as crucial to economic survival, this article highlights sources of public support used by workers unemployed for varying time periods. Resources Used by Unemployed Workers Wage earners feeling nagging anxiety about their own job fate hardly need social scientists to remind them that financial hardship is one of most severe stresses experienced by unemployed and their (Borrero, 1980, p. 925) or that the most noxious consequence of unemployment is burden it causes (Turner, Kessler, & House, 1991, pp. 538-539). Briar (1987) vividly described economic ramifications of long-term job loss and importance of economic resources, especially unemployment benefits, in buffering its effects: Depleted life savings, bankruptcy, poverty, and homelessness are but a few of by-products of one or multiple spells of unemployment. Economic deprivation, in turn, may set in motion a chain of losses that compound psychological and social stresses associated with joblessness. Fewer than one-half and at many times only one-third of jobless people receive unemployment benefits. And even if they receive such benefits, workers and their families with no other source of income are plunged below poverty line. (p. 3) Although discussions of job loss in both popular media and academic journals commonly highlight its economic impact, empirical literature on its economic reverberations is rather limited. Perhaps because social workers need no persuasion that economic factors are central to well-being of unemployed workers, few studies on resources have been contributed by social work researchers. Briar (1978) provided early documentation of effects of long-term unemployment on 52 skilled workers and their families. In a later work, she concluded that without an economic cushion, such as an employed spouse, benefits, or savings, workers and their families may plummet financially (Briar, 1987, p. …