Jackson Free Press

In November, 5.7 million people in America had been unemployed for at least 27 weeks, or about six months—the official, federal definition of long-term unemployment. The long-term unemployed accounted for 43 percent of all the people who were unemployed.

Earlier in the month, a Pew Charitable Trusts analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that more than 4.4 million people in the United States had been unemployed for more than a year—almost the population of Louisiana. Pew concluded that long-term unemployment persists, even as the overall unemployment rate has improved somewhat.

Long-term unemployment as a percentage of all unemployment is much higher now than in decades past. Pew found that some areas of the population are disproportionately affected. While older adults are less likely to be unemployed, those who are unemployed are more likely to stay jobless for a year or more.

People with higher levels of education are less likely to be unemployed, but if they do lose their jobs, their chances of finding a new one quickly are only slightly higher than those with a high school diploma or less.

Some industries have lower levels of unemployment than others, but that doesn't necessarily translate into low levels of long-term unemployment. The Atlantic reported that mining, for example, had relatively low unemployment, but about 45 percent of those who were jobless had been unemployed long term. Agriculture, however, had relatively low unemployment, and only about 22 percent of those were long-term unemployed.

Within the last five years, unemployment rates have risen at the national, state and local level. In Mississippi, the unemployment rate for October was 10.2 percent. Rankin County had the lowest unemployment rate in the state at 6.6 percent, and Clay County had the highest rate, with 19.1 percent of the civilian work force unemployed. Hinds County had an unemployment rate of 9.2 percent.

Unemployment rates*:
Oct. '06 Oct. '11
United States 4.1 8.5
Mississippi 6.1 10.6
Hinds County 5.4 9.2

* Percentages not seasonally adjusted.