An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it's official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

PRINT:

Short-term unemployed accounted for 29.8 percent of total unemployed in March 2026

April 07, 2026

In March 2026, short-term unemployment, defined as the number of people unemployed for less than 5 weeks, was 2.1 million, or 29.8 percent of all unemployed people. A year earlier, in March 2025, there were 2.4 million people unemployed less than 5 weeks, accounting for 33.6 percent of the unemployed.

Chart Image
Chart Data

Percentage of unemployed by duration of unemployment, March 2016–March 2026
Month	Less than 5 weeks	5–14 weeks	15–26 weeks	27 weeks and over
Mar 2016	30.4	27.2	14.4	28.0
Apr 2016	32.1	26.4	15.0	26.6
May 2016	30.0	30.0	14.5	25.5
Jun 2016	31.1	28.5	14.5	25.8
Jul 2016	28.8	29.8	16.0	25.4
Aug 2016	29.7	30.5	14.2	25.6
Sep 2016	32.5	28.6	14.8	24.2
Oct 2016	31.0	29.0	15.2	24.8
Nov 2016	31.9	28.7	14.7	24.7
Dec 2016	31.1	28.0	16.4	24.6
Jan 2017	32.2	27.0	15.9	24.8
Feb 2017	33.6	28.5	13.8	24.1
Mar 2017	32.8	29.2	14.4	23.6
Apr 2017	32.8	29.2	13.8	24.1
May 2017	30.8	28.6	15.6	25.0
Jun 2017	34.1	28.2	13.4	24.3
Jul 2017	30.3	29.6	14.9	25.2
Aug 2017	31.7	29.0	15.6	23.7
Sep 2017	32.7	27.8	14.9	24.5
Oct 2017	32.1	29.6	14.0	24.3
Nov 2017	33.8	28.0	14.6	23.6
Dec 2017	33.6	29.6	14.0	22.8
Jan 2018	33.9	29.0	14.6	22.5
Feb 2018	37.0	28.4	13.1	21.5
Mar 2018	35.7	31.1	12.3	20.9
Apr 2018	33.5	31.2	13.9	21.5
May 2018	32.7	31.8	15.3	20.2
Jun 2018	35.3	29.1	13.7	21.9
Jul 2018	31.8	29.1	16.2	22.9
Aug 2018	35.8	27.7	15.9	20.6
Sep 2018	34.0	28.4	15.4	22.2
Oct 2018	33.3	29.8	14.9	21.9
Nov 2018	35.5	29.6	14.8	20.1
Dec 2018	33.5	31.7	14.5	20.3
Jan 2019	36.0	30.5	13.6	19.8
Feb 2019	36.3	28.6	14.4	20.7
Mar 2019	35.0	30.0	14.6	20.4
Apr 2019	33.6	32.0	13.4	21.0
May 2019	36.8	27.0	13.6	22.6
Jun 2019	32.2	30.8	14.2	22.7
Jul 2019	34.8	30.2	14.8	20.2
Aug 2019	37.3	28.1	13.9	20.7
Sep 2019	32.0	30.2	14.6	23.2
Oct 2019	32.6	29.9	15.5	21.9
Nov 2019	35.1	29.2	15.1	20.5
Dec 2019	35.5	30.3	14.1	20.2
Jan 2020	35.0	29.9	15.1	20.0
Feb 2020	36.2	30.9	13.7	19.2
Mar 2020	47.6	25.7	10.9	15.9
Apr 2020	62.0	30.7	3.4	4.0
May 2020	18.5	70.9	5.1	5.5
Jun 2020	16.4	65.1	10.8	7.7
Jul 2020	19.3	31.6	39.7	9.5
Aug 2020	17.1	22.9	48.0	12.0
Sep 2020	20.2	21.6	38.9	19.3
Oct 2020	22.5	21.2	23.8	32.5
Nov 2020	23.2	22.7	17.6	36.5
Dec 2020	27.0	21.7	14.6	36.7
Jan 2021	22.4	24.5	13.3	39.8
Feb 2021	22.0	22.2	14.0	41.8
Mar 2021	22.3	20.3	14.4	43.0
Apr 2021	24.9	20.3	12.8	42.0
May 2021	21.7	23.7	14.2	40.5
Jun 2021	21.2	22.9	14.0	41.9
Jul 2021	25.7	21.3	13.3	39.7
Aug 2021	24.8	23.2	14.0	38.0
Sep 2021	29.5	22.3	12.9	35.3
Oct 2021	28.5	25.7	13.3	32.5
Nov 2021	29.5	25.0	13.1	32.4
Dec 2021	31.3	25.1	12.4	31.2
Jan 2022	37.3	24.7	12.8	25.2
Feb 2022	33.4	28.0	11.7	26.9
Mar 2022	38.1	28.4	10.3	23.1
Apr 2022	38.8	27.0	10.8	23.5
May 2022	34.8	30.1	12.8	22.3
Jun 2022	38.5	25.8	12.7	22.9
Jul 2022	36.2	32.4	12.1	19.3
Aug 2022	35.9	30.6	13.4	20.2
Sep 2022	37.9	27.9	14.8	19.4
Oct 2022	36.9	30.1	12.8	20.2
Nov 2022	37.7	28.0	13.3	20.9
Dec 2022	38.8	28.6	14.1	18.5
Jan 2023	33.5	31.5	15.9	19.0
Feb 2023	37.7	30.7	13.7	17.8
Mar 2023	38.5	29.7	13.6	18.2
Apr 2023	33.4	33.7	13.8	19.1
May 2023	34.6	31.0	15.2	19.2
Jun 2023	35.3	30.8	15.1	18.8
Jul 2023	33.9	29.8	16.2	20.2
Aug 2023	34.0	30.3	14.4	21.2
Sep 2023	32.7	31.8	16.1	19.4
Oct 2023	35.4	28.3	15.8	20.5
Nov 2023	32.9	32.9	15.5	18.6
Dec 2023	34.9	28.4	16.8	20.0
Jan 2024	34.6	30.5	14.2	20.7
Feb 2024	36.0	30.0	15.1	18.9
Mar 2024	34.1	30.8	15.4	19.7
Apr 2024	35.8	30.8	13.9	19.6
May 2024	35.2	29.2	14.8	20.7
Jun 2024	31.4	30.7	15.6	22.3
Jul 2024	32.9	30.5	15.1	21.5
Aug 2024	34.0	28.5	16.1	21.4
Sep 2024	31.6	28.5	16.4	23.5
Oct 2024	30.1	29.6	17.4	22.8
Nov 2024	30.7	28.9	17.3	23.1
Dec 2024	31.3	29.0	17.3	22.3
Jan 2025	33.4	28.5	16.9	21.1
Feb 2025	33.4	30.9	14.8	20.9
Mar 2025	33.6	30.7	14.4	21.3
Apr 2025	30.8	31.8	13.9	23.5
May 2025	34.3	30.7	14.5	20.4
Jun 2025	31.8	30.0	15.0	23.3
Jul 2025	31.4	27.8	15.9	24.9
Aug 2025	33.0	27.4	14.0	25.6
Sep 2025	29.0	30.6	16.7	23.6
Oct 2025	–	–	–	–
Nov 2025	32.4	28.0	15.2	24.4
Dec 2025	30.5	27.6	15.9	26.0
Jan 2026	29.5	29.3	16.4	24.7
Feb 2026	30.9	27.7	16.1	25.3
Mar 2026	29.8	27.9	16.9	25.4
Note: Data for October 2025 were not collected due to the federal government shutdown. Percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding.

The number of people unemployed long term (27 weeks or more) was 1.8 million in March 2026, or 25.4 percent of the total. A year earlier, it was 1.5 million people, or 21.3 percent of all unemployed.

These data are from the Current Population Survey and are seasonally adjusted. For more information, see “The Employment Situation — March 2026.” We also have more charts on employment and unemployment. Duration of unemployment is the length of time, in weeks, that people classified as unemployed have been continuously looking for work.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Short-term unemployed accounted for 29.8 percent of total unemployed in March 2026 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2026/short-term-unemployed-accounted-for-29-8-percent-of-total-unemployed-in-march-2026.htm (visited April 07, 2026).

OF INTEREST