[lbo-talk] Re: Insured unemployment

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Tue Aug 10 15:33:59 PDT 2004


Michael Pollak wrote:


>So does this mean that the majority of the umemployed at any given
>time are long-term, structural unemployed?

Depends on what you mean. To be counted as unemployed you have to be actively searching for work. Many of the long-term structural unemployed don't qualify, so they're either coded as "discouraged" or "not in labor force." Here's the breakdown of the officially unemployed in July:

<http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t09.htm>

Total unemployed 100.0 Less than 5 weeks 34.4 5 to 14 weeks 30.3 15 weeks and over 35.3

15 to 26 weeks 14.8

27 weeks and over 20.4

The 27+ is unusually high right now, as is usually the case early in a recovery. The harder cases need tight labor markets to find work.

Doug



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