07/19/2026
https://www.facebook.com/share/1Z5m5EXX1z/
By most key metrics, the U.S. labor market is in fine shape: the economy has added jobs for four straight months, much improved from late last year, and the unemployment rate has drifted down to 4.2%.
Yet nearly two million Americans have been locked out of the job market for at least half a year.
The long-term unemployed—people without work for 27 weeks or more, the longest period the Labor Department reports in each monthly jobs report—accounted for 27.3% of all unemployed people in June, up 4 percentage points from a year earlier.
That is hovering near the highest level since late 2021, when the labor market was recovering from the Covid-19 shock. This can be perilous, since the six-month mark is when many job seekers lose severance or unemployment benefits.
Federal data suggest white-collar workers are spending the most time on the sidelines, with those in their prime working years particularly affected by long-term unemployment.
American employers are still largely stuck in a low-hire, low-fire mode even though job growth has improved from a very weak 2025. Hiring as a share of employment has barely budged in two years.
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