HELPING JOB-SEEKERS: Job hunts are stretching even longer for the growing number of unemployed. Try not to be ashamed of losing a position, urges Jamaica Eilbes, a recruiter for staffing company Manpower Inc. "Everybody knows somebody who's been let go," she said.

Friends and family can help ease the anxiety of a long search for work, said Eilbes, whose husband looked for five months before finding a job.

Don't nag a loved one who has been laid off, or ask him what he accomplished that day. Instead, reiterate that things will eventually get better, let the job-seeker vent and try to bring up other subjects to distract anxiety.

She urges someone on the job trail to spread the news of unemployment long and far. Friends and family should get involved also; the more people who know you are looking for work, the better, Eilbes said.

She also recommends updating a resume with volunteer work you've done since getting laid off and staging mock interviews with a job recruiter or someone you trust.

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WORRIES, WORRIES: Plunging stock prices and rising health care costs have Americans fretting, but it's job security that worries us most.

A survey earlier this month asked US adults what issues most concerned them, and 38 percent said the state of their job, while 23 percent cited stock market performance, 20 percent said the cost of health care and 12 percent said saving for retirement.

However, those concerns varied markedly for people of different ages, race, income and education level.

Older Americans — those ages 55 and up — were less concerned about jobs and worried more about how markets were faring, while half or more of people aged 18 to 44 were most worried about their employment status. The ethnic group most concerned about their jobs was non-Hispanic African-Americans, 55 percent of whom worried about job security.

While only 11 percent of those who had not finished high school worried most about the state of the Dow Jones industrials, 30 percent of college graduates cited markets as their top worry.