January 06, 2004 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Extent of unemployment in 2002

The median number of weeks spent looking for work for those who experienced unemployment in 2002 was 15.5, up from 13.7 weeks the year before.

[Chart data—TXT]

Some 2.7 million individuals who had looked for a job did not work at all in 2002, up from 2.0 million a year earlier. Of the 14.1 million persons who worked during the year and also experienced unemployment, 22.8 percent had two or more spells of joblessness, down from 24.7 percent in 2001.

These data are a product of the Current Population Survey. Find out more in "Work Experience of the Population in 2002" (PDF) (TXT),  news release USDL 03-911.

 

Related TED articles: 

• Unemployment during 2002 by race, Hispanic ethnicity, and sex
• Percent of men and women that worked during 2002