Recession Nightmare: From Unemployed to Unemployable

Long-term unemployment is becoming the defining feature of the Great Recession. As of September, the average time out of work stands at 40.5 weeks. Of the 14 million unemployed, about 45 percent have been jobless for more than six months, and over 70 percent of those have not worked in a year or more. No other business cycle since the 1930s has come close to matching the current experience. After a speech in Cleveland on Sept. 28, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke called long-term joblessness a “national crisis” in a comment to the Associated Press.