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The United States declared a national emergency in March 2020 due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unemployment rose by 1.4 million in March, with a large increase in the number of newly unemployed—that is, those unemployed for less than 5 weeks. Prior to the pandemic, those unemployed less than 5 weeks accounted for roughly one-third of the total unemployed, but this share increased to nearly one-half in March. In the months that followed, changes in the duration of joblessness reflected the evolving effects of the pandemic on the labor market.
Month | Number of unemployed | Percent distribution | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total unemployed, any duration |
Less than 5 weeks | 5 to 14 weeks | 15 to 26 weeks | 27 weeks and over | Less than 5 weeks | 5 to 14 weeks | 15 to 26 weeks | 27 weeks and over | |
Jan 2019 |
6,516,000 | 2,319,000 | 1,999,000 | 898,000 | 1,259,000 | 35.8% | 30.9% | 13.9% | 19.4% |
Feb 2019 |
6,181,000 | 2,169,000 | 1,809,000 | 928,000 | 1,279,000 | 35.1 | 29.3 | 15.0 | 20.7 |
Mar 2019 |
6,194,000 | 2,116,000 | 1,812,000 | 936,000 | 1,305,000 | 34.3 | 29.4 | 15.2 | 21.2 |
Apr 2019 |
5,850,000 | 1,906,000 | 1,835,000 | 860,000 | 1,227,000 | 32.7 | 31.5 | 14.8 | 21.1 |
May 2019 |
5,938,000 | 2,158,000 | 1,572,000 | 822,000 | 1,298,000 | 36.9 | 26.9 | 14.0 | 22.2 |
Jun 2019 |
5,985,000 | 1,949,000 | 1,832,000 | 776,000 | 1,413,000 | 32.6 | 30.7 | 13.0 | 23.7 |
Jul 2019 |
6,027,000 | 2,222,000 | 1,795,000 | 909,000 | 1,170,000 | 36.4 | 29.5 | 14.9 | 19.2 |
Aug 2019 |
5,999,000 | 2,218,000 | 1,746,000 | 831,000 | 1,251,000 | 36.7 | 28.9 | 13.7 | 20.7 |
Sep 2019 |
5,753,000 | 1,869,000 | 1,778,000 | 806,000 | 1,318,000 | 32.4 | 30.8 | 14.0 | 22.8 |
Oct 2019 |
5,857,000 | 1,978,000 | 1,747,000 | 884,000 | 1,259,000 | 33.7 | 29.8 | 15.1 | 21.5 |
Nov 2019 |
5,811,000 | 2,026,000 | 1,753,000 | 865,000 | 1,219,000 | 34.6 | 29.9 | 14.7 | 20.8 |
Dec 2019 |
5,753,000 | 2,065,000 | 1,730,000 | 812,000 | 1,186,000 | 35.6 | 29.9 | 14.0 | 20.5 |
Jan 2020 |
5,892,000 | 2,059,000 | 1,755,000 | 887,000 | 1,166,000 | 35.1 | 29.9 | 15.1 | 19.9 |
Feb 2020 |
5,787,000 | 2,013,000 | 1,803,000 | 825,000 | 1,102,000 | 35.1 | 31.4 | 14.4 | 19.2 |
Mar 2020 |
7,140,000 | 3,542,000 | 1,794,000 | 808,000 | 1,164,000 | 48.5 | 24.5 | 11.1 | 15.9 |
Apr 2020 |
23,078,000 | 14,283,000 | 7,004,000 | 833,000 | 939,000 | 61.9 | 30.4 | 3.6 | 4.1 |
May 2020 |
20,985,000 | 3,875,000 | 14,814,000 | 1,078,000 | 1,164,000 | 18.5 | 70.8 | 5.2 | 5.6 |
Jun 2020 |
17,750,000 | 2,838,000 | 11,496,000 | 1,903,000 | 1,391,000 | 16.1 | 65.2 | 10.8 | 7.9 |
Jul 2020 |
16,338,000 | 3,202,000 | 5,169,000 | 6,484,000 | 1,501,000 | 19.6 | 31.6 | 39.6 | 9.2 |
Aug 2020 |
13,550,000 | 2,281,000 | 3,134,000 | 6,517,000 | 1,624,000 | 16.8 | 23.1 | 48.1 | 12.0 |
Sep 2020 |
12,580,000 | 2,552,000 | 2,732,000 | 4,918,000 | 2,405,000 | 20.2 | 21.7 | 39.0 | 19.1 |
Oct 2020 |
11,061,000 | 2,500,000 | 2,275,000 | 2,617,000 | 3,556,000 | 22.8 | 20.8 | 23.9 | 32.5 |
Nov 2020 |
10,735,000 | 2,467,000 | 2,413,000 | 1,857,000 | 3,941,000 | 23.1 | 22.6 | 17.4 | 36.9 |
Note: Detail for the seasonally adjusted data will not necessarily sum to total because of the independent seasonal adjustment of the duration groups. |
For instance, in April 2020, the share of the unemployed who were unemployed for less than 5 weeks increased to 61.9 percent, and those unemployed for 5 to 14 weeks grew to 30.4 percent. Because of the large and rapid influx of newly unemployed people, the long-term unemployed—those looking for work for 27 weeks or more—initially accounted for a declining share of the total unemployed, representing only 4.1 percent of the total unemployed in April, the smallest share since 1953.
The total number of unemployed persons began to decrease in May, when economic activity in many areas resumed on a limited basis. Despite this improvement in unemployment, the overwhelming majority of the unemployed—70.8 percent—had by that time been unemployed for 5 to 14 weeks, as much of the initial wave of unemployment remained without work and moved into longer duration categories.
Even though total unemployment continued to decline in June and July, the composition of unemployment still shifted to longer durations. By July, the largest share of the unemployed, at 39.6 percent, were unemployed for 15 to 26 weeks. In September, 6 months after the emergency declaration, the share unemployed for 27 weeks or longer was growing rapidly. By November, the long-term unemployed accounted for the largest share of the unemployed at 36.9 percent.
These data are from the Current Population Survey and are seasonally adjusted. For more information, see "The Employment Situation — November 2020" and the charts on employment and unemployment.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, 36.9 percent of unemployed jobless 27 weeks or more as pandemic continues, November 2020 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2020/36-point-9-percent-of-unemployed-jobless-27-weeks-or-more-as-pandemic-continues-november-2020.htm (visited October 31, 2024).