2014/03/21/Out of Work, Out of Luck

title/short::Out of Work, Out of Luck At the height of the jobs crisis, 6.8 million Americans had been unemployed for more than six months. The number is much smaller today not because the long-term unemployed, as these Americans are defined by the Labor Department, have found jobs, but because they have given up looking for work. And 3.8 million long-term jobless in February is still three times as many as before the recession.
 * when: when posted::2014/03/21
 * author: author::Ben Casselman
 * source: site::FiveThirtyEight
 * topics: topic::unemployment topic::US economy
 * keywords
 * link: URL::http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/out-of-work-out-of-luck/
 * title: title::Out of Work, Out of Luck
 * summary: "The nearly 5-year-old economic recovery has so far been too weak to put many of the recession’s victims back to work. And there is mounting evidence that even if the economy accelerated now, it would be too late: Many if not most of the 3.8 million Americans who have been out of work for more than six months will never again hold steady jobs."

Dig deeper into the numbers and a grim picture emerges: Few of the long-term unemployed are finding jobs. Even fewer are finding steady work. Most worryingly, their prospects aren’t improving along with the broader economy, even in parts of the country where the recovery is strongest.