You must exist on a different Internet and reality from me. :-)
Not that long ago, there was an article on HN about an internal hiring consultant (I think) telling someone that if you don't currently have a job, don't bother applying. I've heard project managers yammer on about how companies use layoffs to get rid of their least productive employees.
In a down economy, when HR is faced with a flood of resumes, they start looking for simple things which give the appearance of objectivity and wisdom, which arbitrarily reduce their pile of resumes. 'Currently employed' becomes one of these criteria.
If you're referencing the same article(s) I've read recently, it wasn't "if you don't currently have a job, don't bother applying" it was "if someone has been unemployed for over a year, there is probably a reason". It wasn't a negative judgment on being laid off, it was making the assumption that a long period of unemployment was a signal that the person may not be very hard working or talented or whatever, and with many candidates to choose from that signal could be a deciding factor.
I don't know how you guys get anything done over there I'd just spend my life ina state of perpetual paranoia.
Layoff and bad credit history are not the same. Here companies die left and right and layoffs happen and people understand that.
The social thing sounded a bit weird to me. But then, most of the people I've worked with either base their social scene around their work, or around something else (e.g. church). If you're not in one of those groups, you'll simply find yourself growing ever more distant.