Long-Term Unemployment in 3 Graphs

In Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, President Obama and the many political pundits who followed after him all spoke about the impact of long-term unemployment on Americans and our economy.  While the President applauded the lowest rate of unemployment over the past five years, there are other numbers worthy of a second look.  We are indeed in the midst of lowered unemployment, and we are indeed creating jobs, but this number is also partially due tohundreds of thousands of people dropping out of the workforce entirely, no longer looking for jobs. Many of those who left the workforce altogether come from the pool of long-term unemployment.  Long-term unemployment is counted at 27 weeks and longer of looking for work.  In order to better understand these numbers, NPR has crafted three charts to show where long-term unemployment has hit Americans the hardest. Florida is one of six states hit worst by long-term unemployment numbers, joined by North Carolina, Illinois, New York, and Alaska.  As a result, Florida has been disproportionately affected by Congress’s failure to renew long-term unemployment benefits.  In both 2011 and 2012, Florida ranked highest in long-term unemployment rates. Another blow for Florida’s economy is that Leisure and Hospitality, an industry fueled by Florida’s tourism, faces some of the worst long-term unemployment rates in the country. This last statistic hits home for millennials.  Of the 2.5 million people unemployed between the ages of 25 to 34, 31% of them are facing long-term unemployment. With these numbers in mind, let’s look to the “Year of Action” we saw declared Tuesday night.  President Obama has already convinced big companies like Bank of America, Lockheed Martin, Xerox, and AT&T to sign his pledge not to discriminateagainst those applicants with a history of long-term unemployment. For more details on the NPR numbers, see the original articlehere. Like Matter of Cause on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. For inquiries, please contact liz@matterofcause.com.