April 04, 2006 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Duration of unemployment in 2005

About 1.4 million unemployed persons had been jobless for at least 27 weeks at the end of 2005, a decrease of 317,000 over the year.

Unemployed persons by duration of unemployment, percent distribution, seasonally adjusted, fourth quarter 2005
[Chart data—TXT]

These long-term unemployed persons made up 18.6 percent of total unemployment in the last quarter of 2005, down from 21.2 percent at the end of 2004.

The average duration of unemployment in the fourth quarter of 2005, at 17.7 weeks, also was lower than a year earlier. In the last quarter of 2004, the average duration was 19.6 weeks.

These data are from the Current Population Survey. Find more information in "Lower unemployment in 2005," by Emy Sok, Monthly Labor Review, March 2006.

 

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