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On August 1, 2025, I posted on LinkedIn that August would be Unemployment Awareness Month. I tagged it #UnemploymentAwarenessMonth and #HiringForGood, shared a green-and-white ribbon I designed, and asked people to do one thing: show compassion and take action for the people around them who are looking for work.
I'm a Los Angeles-based Software Quality Engineer and the creator of QA Academy. I don't run a nonprofit or a policy shop. I started this month because [add your personal reason here: what you saw, lived through or kept hearing that made you decide something needed to exist].
Unemployment is part of life, and we don't talk about it
No matter what the economy is doing, there are always people looking for work. Some were laid off. Some are coming back after caring for family, after an illness, after school or after the military. Some have been searching for a long time. And with technology changing how work gets done faster than ever, losing a job is something that will touch almost all of us, directly or through someone we love.
Even so, being out of work still carries a quiet stigma. People stop mentioning it. They feel they have to explain the gap, apologize for it or hide it. [Add a sentence or two from your own experience or from conversations you've had about what that silence feels like.]
That silence costs more than a paycheck. Job hunting wears on your confidence, your routine, your relationships and your mental health. Most of that weight goes unseen.
What I want this month to do
Unemployment Awareness Month has a simple set of goals:
- Make unemployment visible. If we can talk about it openly, people who are between jobs don't have to carry it alone.
- Replace stigma with dignity. Being out of work says nothing about someone's worth, talent or work ethic.
- Look after mental health. Check on the people in your life who are job hunting. A short message can mean a lot.
- Encourage employers to hire people who are out of work. That's what #HiringForGood is about: giving people between jobs a fair look, and saying so publicly.
Why August
I picked August on purpose. Back-to-school season is often the first big hit to a household's budget, which makes it an especially hard month to be between jobs. It's also a month when a lot of us are thinking about fresh starts.
What happened the first year
I launched the month on August 1, 2025, and wrapped it up with a closing post on August 25. [Add what you noticed during the first month: who reached out, any messages or moments that stayed with you, what surprised you.]
My closing message was about strength in the community: shop local, buy local, volunteer locally, and check on your friends.
Where it goes from here
Unemployment Awareness Month happens every August. This site is where it lives now: a place for the ribbon, stories from people who are job hunting, a Spotlight for talent and for employers who are Hiring for Good, and a kit to help you ask your own city to recognize the month.
[Add what you're hoping for in August 2027, for example a goal for proclamations, partners, ribbons or stories.]
How you can be part of it
- Wear the ribbon. Download it from the toolkit and add it to your profile or your posts in August.
- Hire or refer someone. Make an introduction, pass along a lead, or give someone between jobs a first interview.
- Share your story. If you've been through it, tell us about it. Being seen helps.
- Ask your city. Use the proclamation kit to ask your city, county or state to recognize August.
Let's use this month to show compassion and take action, and make a difference one hire at a time.
— Peter