Für die <a href=www.persoenlich.com target=_blank>demnächst auf der Strasse stehenden KollegInnen vom Tages-Anzeiger, hier die basic facts einer neuen schwedischen Studie, publiziert am 10.11.03: The length of time a person is unemployed is dependent on how many others are unemployed in the immediate surroundings. According to a new report from IFAU (the Institute for Labor Market Policy Evaluation) in Sweden, a high level of unemployment in the immediate area is a factor in extending the length of unemployment among local individuals. Young people who live in an area with many unemployed people have less of a chance to leave unemployment compared with young people living in areas with fewer unemployed persons. If a comparison is made between two unemployed young adults who have the same background (regarding for example sex, education, grades, and country of birth) but live in different neighborhoods, with high and low unemployment rates, respectively, about a 25-percent longer unemployment period can be expected for the individual in the high-unemployment area. In other words, these results suggest that unemployment is “contagious”, that is, that unemployment among people an individual associates with can prolong that individual’s own period of unemployment.