on skype out of oakland california is david blue steen. a psychologist and professor, he looks at the intersection of mental health, and work, and recently testified before congress on a law that would prohibit discrimination against the long term unemployed. and out of washington, d.c., omar ucif, he is a recent grad who has been unable to find work, thank you for joining us. david, right now, this more than 92 million americans out of the labor force, and a number of studies are showing a corelation between unemployment and depression. what's the state of mental health as related to the people out of work? >> it is a great question. the state of the situation in my view is dire. the research evidence is very clear that unemployment especially unemployment for six months or more, is causally related to mental health problems. so the mental health -- some indices of mental health among the emmyed verses unemployed, indade that unemployed folks 34% tend to have mental health problems, whereas 60% of the general population has mental health