The unemployment rate currently hovers around 6.3 percent. While this is significantly lower than the 10 percent rate hit in late 2009, serious concern (even desperation) lingers among the 3.45 million (nearly 36 percent of those currently unemployed) who have been unemployed for at least 27 weeks.
The reasons underlying the long-term unemployment rate are varied and complex. Some attribute the rate, at least in part, to perceived employer bias against hiring the long-term unemployed. In the eyes of the long-term unemployed, the recession has created a perpetual cycle; they can’t get a job because they don’t have a job, and they don’t have a job because they can’t get a job.
