From the editor's desk of the BLS...

This article is from the BLS editors... The most interesting tid-bit to me is that the number of people unemployed for 6 months or more has doubled in 2008.

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January 13, 2009 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Unemployment in December 2008

In December, the number of unemployed persons increased by 632,000 to 11.1 million and the unemployment rate rose to 7.2 percent. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has grown by 3.6 million, and the unemployment rate has risen by 2.3 percentage points.

Unemployment rate, December 2007-December 2008


Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs rose over the month by 315,000 to 6.5 million in December 2008. Over the past 12 months, the size of this group has increased by 2.7 million.

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) rose to 2.6 million in December and was up by 1.3 million in 2008.