Long-term unemployment crisis rolls on

Dylan Matthews is writing Wonkbook while Ezra is in China. The Justice Department is launching a criminal investigation into the BP oil spill. Meanwhile, long-term unemployment has reached an unprecedented high. And an Obama nominee promises to reignite the health-care debate. Welcome to Wonkbook. Top Stories

CATHERINE RAMPELL tells the troubling story of the long-term unemployed in America, who often find that even their job applications are unwelcome:A recent review of job vacancy postings on popular sites like Monster.com, CareerBuilder and Craigslist revealed hundreds that said employers would consider (or at least “strongly prefer”) only people currently employed or just recently laid off.

Almost 30 million adults were in a job in the quarter to last November, up by more than half a million on the previous year, reports The Telegraph. The figure, giving an employment rate of 71pc, is the highest since records began in 1971, according to the Office for National Statistics on Wedesday. Unemployment fell by 37,000 in the latest quarter to just under 2.5 million, the lowest since spring 2011.

Tyler Cowen gives us this little factoid about American unemployment: The rate of short-term unemployment—six months or less—is almost back to normal. In January it was 4.9 percent of the labor force. That’s only 0.7 percentage point above its 2001-07 average. But the rate of long-term unemployment, 3 percent in January, is precisely triple its 2001-07 average, according to a Bloomberg Businessweek calculation based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

The unemployment rate rose from 9.8 to 10.2% in October, and nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline (down another 190,000 jobs), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The largest job losses over the month were in construction, manufacturing, and retail trade.

To me by far the most interesting number in the recent US employment numbers was the number of long-term unemployed. It's this, right here, that explains why the US has a serious longer term problem now, for US unemployment is now beginning to look very like European unemployment. And this is a problem that you probably want to deal with and swiftly: Meanwhile, the number of people unemployed for six months or longer went up by 89,000 people this month, to 4.8 million, and the average duration of unemployment also rose, to 36.9 weeks from 35.3 weeks.

By Mike Konczal Live at The Week, Brad Delong writes Does Washington care about unemployment?: Today, the unemployment rate is kissing 10 percent. Global financial markets are sending us a message that the excess demand for high-quality financial assets is growing again. Yet, unlike 1983, there is no sense of urgency in Washington. ...