Supporting the Jobless: Doctors, Clergy, Police, Probation Officers

The problems of unemployment soon reach the desks and consulting rooms of professional helpers. But, when joblessness is the ‘social disease’, what role is there for the professional who sees the symptoms but cannot offer the cure—a job? Stephen Fineman in his book Supporting the Jobless (first published in 1990) reveals, through a sensitive portrait of their lives and dilemmas, the sense of crisis that these professionals feel in the face of unemployment.

The book covers four professions—me...