The Economy IS Getting Better
Job seekers wait in line to enter the San Francisco Hire Event job fair on November 9, 2011 in San Francisco, California. The national unemployment rate dipped this past month to 9 percent in October after employers added 80,000 jobs. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The long term unemployed are beginning to return to work, reports the Wall Street Journal:
More recently, however, unemployment has fallen more quickly among the long-term jobless than among the broader population. In the past year, the number of long-term unemployed workers has dropped by 830,000, accounting for nearly the entire 843,000-person drop in overall joblessness.
As a result,
The average unemployed worker has now been looking for 38 weeks, down from a peak of nearly 41 weeks and the lowest level since early 2011.
We're still far way from full employment. We're further away from an economy where workers can expect sustained increases in wages, supposing such an economy to be in our future at all. But still: better.
About the Author
David Frum
David Frum is a contributing editor at Newsweek and The Daily Beast and a CNN contributor. He is the author of eight books, including most recently the e-book WHY ROMNEY LOST and his first novel Patriots, published in April 2012.
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