The unemployment rate’s keeps declining, but the obstacles for job-seekers have not fallen as fast.
Two major woes remain for jobseekers, according to some research done at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and posted on the institution’s Macroblog:
— The odds against those who have been out of work a long time remain high.
— The odds of finding only part-time work likewise are high.
The situation has improved in the past several years, but they are nowhere near back to pre-recession levels, write John Robertson, senior economist, and Ellyn Terry, a senior economic analyst, members of the Atlanta Fed’s research department.
“Before the recession, the number of unemployed workers who said they had been looking for a job for more than half a year accounted for about 18 percent of unemployed workers. Currently, that share is close to 36 percent,” they wrote.
As for people stuck working fewer hours than they want: The portion of those able to find only part-time work was 22 percent in 2007. It is almost 30 percent now – and it is 36 percent for long-time unemployed.
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