Graph of the Day: For the Long-Term Unemployed, Finding a Job is Only Getting Harder
By Benjamin Landy
For the long-term unemployed in America, life is only getting harder. While national unemployment remains high at 9.2 percent, near where the rate has stuck for the last two years, the average number of weeks an unemployed worker has been jobless is still growing. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, if you are one of the 14 million unemployed today, the odds are you’ve been unemployed for at least five months, or nine months if you look at the arithmetic mean.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Unfortunately, more and more businesses are using current employment as a proxy for employability, meaning the long-term unemployed face mounting discrimination and ever diminishing prospects compared to their recently laid-off peers. And, unlike discrimination based on race, ethnicity, disability, religion, sex and age, employers are entirely within their legal rights to use unemployment –especially long-term unemployment – as grounds for rejection. So while the number of people unemployed for less than 5 weeks declined by 387,000 in July, the number of people unemployed for over 27 weeks barely changed, holding steady at 6.2 million.
Only New Jersey has outlawed this kind of discrimination, and although several other states are considering similar legislation, the 6 million Americans who have been without work for over six months are still in serious trouble. According to a new report by the National Employment Law Project - an advocacy group for the employment rights of low wage workers - the half-year mark is a watershed moment in the eyes of many employers. Many companies are far less likely, even unwilling, to hire people who have been unemployed for over six months.
Until the unemployed are able to find work, we should extend their jobless benefits for another six months, which studies show generates two dollars of economic growth for every one dollar the federal government spends. Without bipartisan support to continue these unemployment insurance programs, many millions of Americans may find themselves in poverty when their benefits expire at the end of this year.
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