Long term unemployment still epically distressed
Conditions for the long term unemployed were mixed in January. Comparatively, they're still epically distressed.
This chart shows the number of people who have been unemployed for 27 weeks and over since 2000. The rate has declined since it hit peak in 2010.
SoldAtTheTop
Today's employment situation report showed that conditions for the long term unemployed were mixed in January and remained epically distressed by historic standards.
Workers unemployed 27 weeks or more declined to 5.518 million or 42.9% of all unemployed workers while the median number of weeks unemployed increased to 21.1 weeks and the average stay on unemployment declined to 40.1 weeks, the highest level ever recorded.
Looking at the chart above (click for super interactive version) you can see that today’s sorry situation far exceeds even the conditions seen during the double-dip recessionary period of the early 1980s, long considered by economists to be the worst period of unemployment since the Great Depression.