US Unemployment to Stay Elevated Through 2012: Analyst

The longer that you're out of a job, the harder it is to get back into it again, the skills that you would have learned on the job you don't learn; the skills you did have, you start to forget about them,” he said. “There are jobs out there, the problem is that it's again skill mismatch as well.”

Entitlement programs, like unemployment benefits, are also to blame, according to Mann, as they are causing a lack of motivation in American job seekers.

"If you know that you're going to have to be finding something because your benefits will run out very quickly, it is an extra incentive to really go out and find the jobs," Mann said