Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Long-Term Unemployment at Post-WWII High


As Barry Ritholtz pointed out Friday:

Long-term unemployed (jobless for 27 weeks+) increased by 414,000 to 6.5 million.
Yesterday, the Pew Charitable Trusts released a report noting that long-term unemployment is the worst it has been since the end of World War II. As summarized by Shahien Nasiripour:

More than three million Americans have been out of work for at least a year, according to a new analysis of unemployment data.

That represents 23 percent of the roughly 14.8 million Americans out of work and looking for a job -- a post-World War II high. For those 3.4 million Americans, the consequences from such a long time out of work -- a cost of the Great Recession -- can be calamitous.

"[T]he likelihood of finding a job declines as the length of unemployment increases," notes the team led by Ingrid Schroeder, director of the Pew Fiscal Analysis Initiative, a program of the Pew Economic Policy Group and the Pew Charitable Trusts. "People who are unemployed for a long time can lose their job skills. A long unemployment spell can mark them as undesirable, making it more difficult to compete against other job candidates. [Federal] data suggests that workers who are jobless for the longest duration incur the largest reductions in weekly earnings upon returning to work."

The situation will not improve until the underlying causes are addressed.

7 comments:

  1. Call me a Marxist, but I think the real problem is that the basic economy has shifted and there *never can be* enough jobs for everyone again. There are fully automated factories in Japan right now. There are even fully automated farms with self-driving tractors. The portion of society which needs to work to fulfill the needs of the rest is decreasing faster and faster. This will lead to decreasing demand and an economic death spiral unless demand is created artificially somehow.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Correction:

    Has already been calamitous.

    For our civilization.

    S

    That represents 23 percent of the roughly 14.8 million Americans out of work and looking for a job -- a post-World War II high. For those 3.4 million Americans, the consequences from such a long time out of work -- a cost of the Great Recession -- can be calamitous.

    ReplyDelete
  3. everybody pull their money out of the BANK and 401 Ks or whatever...BREAK UM THAT WAY

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank God those responsible for causing this Depression are facing charges.

    ReplyDelete
  5. just curious why PayPal is used at 95% of the sites and blogs. Do you know they are in cahoots with data mining operations? Do you know they are run by jews? Do you know they are a monopoly for a reason. SET your browser to NOT accept paypal cookies. You'll thank me later.

    Now on to business.

    the truth of the matter...

    http://www.sott.net/articles/show/206251-America-The-Grim-Truth

    please pass this on to everyone.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is no surprise. I have been out of work since July 2009. There are not many good jobs available and the competition is fierce. I have a great education and plenty of experience.
    The economy is broken and no amount of stimulus will get us back to where we were. It is time to storm the Bastille!
    Aimlow Joe
    www.aimlow.com

    ReplyDelete
  7. My family is suffering we will be homeless very soon we have no tetirement or 401 k left no savings our credit is ruined and neither my fiancee nor myself can find a job. We want to work No one cares we will be homeless with little children and no one cares about us the way they do the unemployment rate is disengenous and dishonest we followed the rules pay taxes and now when for the first time honest hard working Americans need help it is no we can not help your lazy. Or we do not have the money but I guarentee if banks needed something the government would find that money.

    ReplyDelete

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