24% of unemployed workers have been out of work for more than a year

In total, these long-term unemployed accounted for 24% of the total 9.9 million unemployed workers last month, according to the office. (Data have no seasonal adjustments.)

“I think that figure is pretty impressive, as almost a quarter of unemployed workers have been unemployed for more than a year,” said Heidi Shierholz, policy director at the Institute for Economic Policy. and chief economist in the Department of Labor from 2014 to 2017.

“It really shows that while the economy is recovering, you have a lot of the same people who have been unemployed for all this damn thing,” he added.

Statistics provide the first glimpse into unemployment a year after officials began issuing closure orders to contain the coronavirus and millions of Americans began applying for unemployment benefits.

And that number is likely to be lower, as the department does not take into account certain workers, such as those who left the workforce completely due to health pandemic risks or childcare tasks. And the share may rise next month, as current figures only offer a snapshot in the middle of last month, which doesn’t quite fit the flood of unemployment claims in late March and until in April 2020.

The office does not separate these long-term unemployment figures by industry.

But workers in this group are likely to be over-represented in the hardest-hit industries, such as leisure and hospitality, Shierholz said. More than 3 million jobs in this sector have not yet returned, accounting for more than a third of the total.

Long-term unemployment has steadily increased throughout the health crisis and is nearing a peak in the Great Recession.

Economists consider workers to be long-term unemployed after at least six months without work.

It is a particularly dangerous period for households from a financial perspective. Finding a new job becomes more difficult, workers ’long-term earning potential is reduced, and the chances of losing a job if they find one on the road increase.

The federal government has stepped in to provide income support by expanding and increasing weekly unemployment benefits. The $ 1.9 trillion U.S. bailout plan, which President Joe Biden signed last month, expands aid during Labor Day and offers a $ 300 weekly supplement to state benefits.

However, not all workers meet the requirements for assistance, despite broader eligibility criteria during the pandemic.

More than 4 million Americans were out of work for six or more months in March, or 43.4 percent of all unemployed, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday.

This is almost at the same level as the record of 45.5% participation success after the Great Recession.

The share is growing even though the U.S. unemployment rate fell to 6% in March. The United States gained 916,000 jobs, most since the summer.

In recessions, unemployment and long-term unemployment usually move up and down together, Shierholz said.

“It’s not what happens here,” he said. “Right now, they’re going in a totally opposite direction: you have unemployment going down and long-term unemployment going up.”

The number of Americans out of work for at least a year is still about half of the maximum reached after the Great Recession.

As of April 2010, more than 4.6 million people had been out of work for at least 52 weeks, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It took another 20 months for that number to drop below 4 million.

However, long-term unemployment may not persist to the same extent this time, given the pace of vaccinations and the trend of economic recovery.