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Commenter Matt directed me to some interesting data on unemployment by duration. The government looks at people unemployed less that 5 weeks, 5 to 14, 15 to 26, and 27 weeks or more. The most recent data is shocking, but first a bit of perspective.

The data is available back to 1948. For many years the low in the under 5 weeks category was in 1953, when it bottomed out at 1.5545% of the workforce. The low in the 60s boom was 1.802% in 1969, and the low in the tech boom was 1.751% in 2000. The low in the housing boom was 1.507% in 2007. In June of this year an all time record low was set; only 1.500% of the workforce was unemployed for less than 5 weeks. And yet the overall unemployment rate was 5.3%, compared to about 2.5% in 1953.

Very strange.

But today’s August data shattered all previous records. The less that 5 week unemployment fell to only 1.334% of the workforce, far lower than at any previous time in recorded history.

Basically almost no one is being laid off anymore.

Relax! Surf the net. Your job has never been safer.

Update: See Matt’s comments below, which make the recent numbers a bit less dramatic, but still very impressive.

PS. The total unemployment rate was higher in 1982 than 2009. But compare the over 27 weeks in those two bad recessions. Let’s see, which was the recession where they extended unemployment benefits to 99 weeks?

PPS. Conversely, in May 1953, only 0.077% of the workforce was unemployed for more than 27 weeks. Essentially nobody. I guess if you couldn’t find a single job during the entire Korean War, you must have had some “issues.”

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This entry was posted on September 04th, 2015 and is filed under Labor markets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or Trackback from your own site.



