Although the need for psychological counseling for the unemployed has been recognized, the development of specific counseling strategies for this population has not been systematically addressed. The need for specific counseling intervention strategies for the recently and chronically unemployed was examined in a study of 25 recently unemployed and 19 chronically unemployed workers. Subjects completed the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and a personal inventory which contained items on personal issues, primary relationship and family change, and perceived causes of unemployment and job needs. Highly distressed subjects were also administered the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. The results revealed that 22 subjects were rated to be chronically unhealthy psychologically, 9 subjects showed signs of psychological difficulties due to temporary stress, and 13 subjects were rated as psychologically healthy. The chronically unemployed subjects were found to exhibit significantly higher rates of psychological disturbance than the recently unemployed subjects. There were no significant differences between recently and chronically unemployed subjects on BDI scores, certain scores on the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale, or in Internal/External scores or requests for counseling from the personal inventory. Several implications can be drawn from these results, among them that global psychological assessment was highly reliable while individual psychological instruments were not. (ND)