It has nothing to do with poor performance in most cases

so settle down and stop beating yourself up

The cause of unemployment can be addressed on two levels: Individual and societal.

Individual causes of unemployment

People get depressed and angry when they become unemployed, especially for long periods of time. You really need to get this nasty emotional monkey off your back and let it run off into the forest where it belongs. The absolute worst thing someone can do is fall victim to a "victim mindset," a feeling of helplessness or worthlessness. I know for a fact that people lose jobs all the time for a variety of reasons that seldom have anything to do with the value they provide as employees. Just a few weeks ago a person whom I respect greatly lost his job after leading his team to the best performance in the company's history by far, this during a recession. You would think that rock-star numbers would inculcate someone against joblessness, but paradoxically that is often not the case. Quite often, people lose jobs because they are too good at what they do and thus threaten the people above them in some way.

Sometimes jobs are shed because companies perform poorly. You have no control over the whims of the economy. Again, don't beat yourself up over it. Move forward. Take honest stock of the past to see what you could have done better, but move forward ALWAYS.

Sometimes people can't find new jobs because their skills sets are too narrow or too broad, and the market demand just isn't there. In my case, I have had problems because my set of skills is very broad, and my employment history shows it. Never mind that I have been quite successful in a number of realms. HR departments want to see people who have done the same job for years, mastered it, and not been bored or curious enough to move on to the next thing. I know other people who have very specific skills who can't find jobs because their skills are just not in demand right now. You could be the best merchandiser and retail space planner in the world, but -- guess what -- if you don't have a job right now, Macy's probably isn't hiring. Nor is anyone else in the retail world.

So chalk it up to fate. Whatever you do, stop beating yourself up if you are in that mode. That won't help you to navigate your path intelligently.

The societal cause of unemployment

We're all feeling this these days, whether we are employed or not.

People who are employed often report being "overemployed," at least that's what I'm hearing. Because companies and governments have stripped their workforces to the bare bones, the survivors are left doing three jobs. Even those poor overworked souls are constantly looking over their shoulders, waiting for the next round of layoffs. It sucks.

What causes the labor market to seize up like this? I have been thinking about this a lot lately, almost obsessively. It's not as if work doesn't need to be done. When I travel outside New York, I'm shocked at how run-down things have become. Even in New York, we're seeing a lot of vacant storefronts. Clearly, there is a lot of work to be done everywhere.

The root problem is that money is not circulating. As wealth has flowed upward over the past 15 years, it has stagnated in a fetid pool at the very top of the socioeconomic pyramid. When money is not circulating among ordinary people, less work gets done, less wealth is created, and unemployment becomes the social problem that it has become. Rich people only need so many gardeners. They can only buy so many yachts. If one percent of the population holds 90 percent of the wealth, capital can't circulate vigorously, and wealth is not created.

Solution? Wealth re-distribution. Yeah, I just said that. We need to tax the wealthy or force them to spend and invest more of their money. That notion will not be popular with some readers (the dumb ones), but that's the way it is. We need to get the money flowing, and it won't flow if it's all in the hands of 493 billionaires while the rest of us scramble for crumbs.

That's what I think, and I'm pretty sure that I'm right on this one.

Anyway, stop feeling sorry for yourself. Understand the causes of unemployment, and get moving. Who's with me!