US / Percent of unemployed seeking work for longer than six months more than doubled between 2007 and 2013

Each month the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports employment figures for the United States. These figures have served as a barometer of the country’s relative economic strength for the last seventy years and recently have highlighted unemployment’s rise throughout the Great Recession. Often overlooked, however, are figures related to the so-called “long-term” unemployed, those unemployed for longer than twenty-six weeks, roughly six months.

While the unemployment rate has slowly receded after a peak of about 10 percent during the Great Recession between december 2007 and June 2009, the long-term unemployment rate remains staggeringly high at more than a third (39 percent) of all unemployed. This is cause for concern given that workers in most states are eligible for a maximum twenty-six weeks of basic unemployment insurance, and the federal extension of unemployment benefits that would have provided, at most, thirty-eight weeks of benefits expired on January 1 of this year. Given the significant numbers of individuals involved, the long-term unemployed are an important group to monitor.

But what are the characteristics of the long-term unemployed? And how do these characteristics vary across place? We know surprisingly little about these questions.5 Using the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) of the Current Population Survey (CPS), this brief outlines the demographic and economic characteristics of the long-term unem- ployed and compares them with their short-term unemployed counterparts.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at 

via The Long-Term Unemployed in the Wake of the Great Recession