Although it doesn’t feel good to be unemployed for over 60 days, new regulations actually makes it smart for employers to hire you.

The HIRE Act, or the ”Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act” signed by President Obama on March 18 offers benefits to employers on new hires recruitments up to Jan 1, 2011. It essentially says that for personnel who have been unemployed for 60 days or more, employers would be exempted from paying Social Security taxes which is equal to 6.2% of their wages. There is also an additional tax credit of $1000 if these employees are on the payroll for a year or longer. So, taking a salary of $50,000, the employer not only saves $3100 on social security taxes, they also get $1000 off of their tax bill.

That means that being jobless for the qualifying 60 days presents a significant incentive for the employer to recruit and retain a candidate.  It’s certainly not pleasant to be unemployed, but you can use this information to show employers how much they could save by hiring you.