NYT: Off the Charts On the Unemployment Line, Unable to Move

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/11/business/economy/11charts.html?hpw

By FLOYD NORRIS

Published: July 10, 2009 LONG-TERM unemployment in the United States has risen to its highest level since the Great Depression, as those who have lost jobs have found it difficult to find new ones.

Finding a New Job The government reported last week that the overall unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent of the labor force in June, the highest since 1982, when the rate peaked at 10.8 percent.

The long-term unemployment rate — the proportion of the labor force that has been out of work for at least 15 weeks — climbed to 5.1 percent. Until this year, the post-Depression high for that rate had been 4.2 percent.

June was also the first month since the government began collecting the data in 1948 that more than half of the unemployed people had been out of work for at least 15 weeks.

The proportion of workers without jobs for at least 27 weeks rose to 2.8 percent, which is also the highest since World War II.

The figures reflect an economy where the pace of layoffs and firings has slowed this year, so that fewer people are being added to the unemployment rolls. But the pace of new hiring is now even lower than it was when layoffs were peaking.

FULL story at link.

[BlooInBloo]

1. Can't they do it online from a library?