Employment Situation: Unemployment Duration October 2016

The latest employment situation report showed that conditions for the long term unemployed generally went flat in October.

Workers unemployed 27 weeks or more increased to 1.979 million or 25.2% of all unemployed workers while the median term of unemployment declined to 10.2 weeks and the average stay on unemployment declined to 27.2 weeks.

Employment Situation: Unemployment Duration June 2016

Today's employment situation report showed that conditions for the long term unemployed generally worsened in June.

Workers unemployed 27 weeks or more increased to 1.979 million or 25.8% of all unemployed workers while the median term of unemployment declined to 10.3 weeks and the average stay on unemployment rose to 27.7 weeks.

Employment Situation: Unemployment Duration April 2016

Today's employment situation report showed that conditions for the long term unemployed generally improved in April.

Workers unemployed 27 weeks or more decreased to 2.063 million or 25.7% of all unemployed workers while the median term of unemployment went flat at 11.4 weeks and the average stay on unemployment declined to 27.7 weeks.

Employment Situation: Unemployment Duration May 2015

Today's employment situation report showed that conditions for the long term unemployed improved in May while still remaining distressed by historic standards.

Workers unemployed 27 weeks or more declined to 2.502 million or 28.6% of all unemployed workers while the median term of unemployment declined to 11.6 weeks and the average stay on unemployment declined to 30.7 weeks.

Employment Situation: Unemployment Duration July 2014

Today's employment situation report showed that conditions for the long term unemployed were mixed in July while still remaining distressed by historic standards.

Workers unemployed 27 weeks or more increased to 3.155 million or 32.9% of all unemployed workers while the median term of unemployment increased to 13.3 weeks and the average stay on unemployment went declined to 32.4 weeks.

Recovery-less Recovery: Unemployment Duration June 2013

Last week's employment situation report showed that conditions for the long term unemployed improved in June while still remaining distressed by historic standards.

Workers unemployed 27 weeks or more declined to 4.328 million or 36.7% of all unemployed workers while the median term of unemployment declined to 16.3 weeks and the average stay on unemployment declined to 35.6 weeks.

Looking at the charts below (click for super interactive versions) 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.

Recovery-less Recovery: Unemployment Duration May 2013

Today's employment situation report showed that conditions for the long term unemployed were mixed in May while still remaining distressed by historic standards.

Workers unemployed 27 weeks or more increased to 4.357 million or 37.3% of all unemployed workers while the median term of unemployment declined to 17.3 weeks and the average stay on unemployment increased to 36.9 weeks.

Looking at the charts below (click for super interactive versions) 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.

Recovery-less Recovery: Unemployment Duration September 2012

Be sure to bookmark the "Scary Unemployment Dashboard"... it's live.

Today's employment situation report showed that conditions for the long term unemployed went mixed in September remaining epically distressed by historic standards.

Workers unemployed 27 weeks or more declined to 4.844 million or 40.1% of all unemployed workers while the median number of weeks unemployed climbed to 18.5 weeks and the average stay on unemployment rose to 39.8 weeks.

Looking at the charts below (click for super interactive versions) 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.

Recovery-less Recovery: Unemployment Duration May 2012

Be sure to bookmark the "Scary Unemployment Dashboard"... it's live.

Today's employment situation report showed that conditions for the long term unemployed worsened notably in May and remained epically distressed by historic standards.

Workers unemployed 27 weeks or more increased to 5.411 million or 42.8% of all unemployed workers while the median number of weeks unemployed increased to 20.1 weeks and the average stay on unemployment climbed to 39.7 weeks, the highest level ever recorded.

Looking at the charts below (click for super interactive versions) 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.

Recovery-less Recovery: Unemployment Duration November 2010

Be sure to bookmark the "Scary Unemployment Dashboard"... it's live.

Today's employment situation report showed that conditions for the long term unemployed weakened slightly in November while remaining epically distressed by historic standards.

Workers unemployed 27 weeks or more increased to 6.313 million or 41.9% of all unemployed workers while the median number of weeks unemployed increased to 21.60 weeks and the average stay on unemployment went flat at 33.8 weeks.

Looking at the charts below (click for super interactive versions) 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.

Recovery-less Recovery: Unemployment Duration January 2010

Nothing says recovery less than a steadily increasing pool of unemployed workers facing the specter of a quickly increasing average (and median) length stint on unemployment.

In fact, as has been widely reported, the median and average stay on unemployment has simply exploded far surpassing the highest levels seen since records have been regularly kept.

Looking at the charts below (click for super interactive versions) 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.

Currently, there are some 6.313 million civilian workers that have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more with the average stay on unemployment standing at a whopping 30.2 weeks and the median stay reaching 19.9 weeks.



Further, as you can see from past cycles, all three of these measures will likely eventually reach their peaks well after the official end of our current economic contraction.

In fact, the most recent two completed cycles (90s S&L crisis and dot-com bust contractions) saw duration of unemployment continue to grow for some two to four years after the technical end of their respective recessions… a solemn notion indeed.

One might consider, with such stark examples of epic structural unemployment, whether the future negative feedback functions associated to this brutal a bout of joblessness are currently being underestimated.