Long-term unemployment increases in United States
In the United States, unemployment has typically been a relatively brief affair. The vast majority of people who lost jobs soon found new work but in Europe and Japan , long-term unemployment is more common; most of the unemployed people have been out of work for more than six months. Now the United States appears to be becoming similar to Europe. Even as the overall unemployment rate has begun to drop — falling to 9.5 percent in June from a peak of 10.1 percent last October — the proportion of the work force that has been out of work for more than six months has risen to 4.4 percent. The long-term unemployment rate has not approached such a level since the government began keeping the statistic in 1948, although the rate was almost certainly much higher during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
46 percent of Americans classified as unemployed — meaning they are out of work and actively seeking a job — have been unemployed for at least six months. That is nearly twice the previous post-World War II high, set in 1983
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