America Is Sleepwalking On The Unemployment Crisis

The issue is the scope and composition of unemployment in America – a
problem that is yet to be sufficiently recognized for its increasingly
detrimental impact on the country’s social fabric, its economic
potential, and its already-fragile fiscal position and debt dynamics.

Let us start with the facts:

· At 8.8% almost three years after the onset of the global
financial crisis, America’s unemployment rate remains stubbornly (and
unusually) high;

· Rather than reflecting job creation, much of the
improvement in recent months (from 9.8% in November last year) is due to
workers exiting the labor force, thus driving workforce participation
to a multi-year low of 64.2%;



· If part-time workers eager to work full time are included,
almost one in six workers in America are either under- or unemployed;



· More than six million workers have been unemployed for more than six months, and four million for over a year