The Great Recession’s Toll on Long-Term Unemployment

November 5, 2010 • Adam Looney, Michael Greenstone • Employment & Wages, Economic Security

During the Great Recession, workers experienced longer spells of unemployment than during any recent recession.  As of October 2010, over half of the unemployed have been out of work for more than more than 21 weeks.  Additionally, the most recent data show a quarter of the unemployed had been out of work for more than a year, while 10 percent had been unemployed for at least 2 years. The Hamilton Project examines the length of employment, as well as the size of the “job gap,” in its monthly analysis of the employment numbers.

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