Well, I was only out of work eight months so I can't say for sure that people don't cut off at 'a year'. But based on the reactions I got, I'd be quite surprise

Well, I was only out of work eight months so I can't say for sure that people don't cut off at 'a year'. But based on the reactions I got, I'd be quite surprised if that was a standard practice. I can imagine it being more likely if being out of work was 'I lost my job and couldn't find another one' instead of 'I quit my job to do x instead for a while'.