December 29, 2010, 11:00 am
Who Benefits from Long-Term Unemployment?
By DAVID LEONHARDT

(Please click on the link below to see chart stat results)


The share of the labor force that has been out of work for at least six months remains near an all-time high. Long-term unemployment is clearly terrible for the millions of people who find themselves in that situation. But it does have a flip side for the rest of the labor force: unemployment in this downturn has been concentrated among a surprisingly small number of people.



The most recent data, shown above, goes through only 2009, but other data suggests the pattern has continued in 2010: A significantly smaller share of workers experienced any spell of unemployment in the last few years than in the other deep recessions of the past 50 years. That’s why the peaks above are higher for the mid-1970s recession and the early-1980s recession than for our recent recession.

Similarly, a different Labor Department survey — which has data through October — shows that the rate at which workers were fired or laid off was lower in 2010 than it was in even the mild recession of 2001:

In essence, a relatively small number of people have borne a disproportionate share of the brunt of the Great Recession.

Of course, that relatively small number still reaches into the millions — and those millions will surely need more help in the years ahead. Even 99 weeks of jobless benefits don’t come close to covering the costs of years outside the workforce.