Publication

This report analyzes the trend in long-term unemployment in the US over the postwar period and compares the individual, job, and household characteristics of the long-term unemployed during the latest recession (2007-2009) with the long-term unemployed at the end of the two previous recessions (1990-1991 and 2001).The recession that began in the US in December 2007 has been one of the deepest and longest since World War II. One feature that distinguishes the recent recession from its postwar predecessors is the historically high percentage of unemployed persons without jobs for more than six months (the long-term unemployed).