The increasing ranks of the unemployed in America today aren't just sitting around the house feeling sorry for themselves. A group of the recently job-deprived gathered in New York City's East Village Tuesday for an event described as the Unemployment Olympics.

Rather than a multimillion-dollar stadium, the inaugural jobless games took place in an appropriately low-budget concrete playground decorated with hand-painted cardboard signs.

Events included "Pin the Blame on the Boss," a dash to the "unemployment office" and a version of Skee-ball in which participants tossed an office phone at targets. A planned competition to see who could throw a fax machine the farthest was sadly canceled at the last minute due to safety concerns.

While it's heartening to see folks keeping their spirits up in these troubled economic times, we hope the Unemployment Olympics will be a one-off event and not an annual tradition. See more pics from the Unemployment Olympics after the jump.