US News -- With a record-high number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits, job seekers are being forced into heated competition for openings. Indeed, the number of people who have been unemployed for 27 weeks or longer has leapt to 3.2 million from 1.3 million at the start of the recession. The pressure is proving too much for some: Last month there were nearly 700,000 Americans that the Labor Department counted as discouraged workers--folks who have given up on looking for work because they don’t believe they’ll find it.
