Long-Term Unemployment and the "Recovery"

Social science researcher Colin Gordon analyzes the past four years of "recovery" of the American economic system in this March 2013 Dissent magazine article. Gordon writes, "Almost four years into the “recovery,” the employment picture is still grim. It’s not just the unemployment rate’s agonizingly slow descent. We still face persistently high rates of underemployment (including those who would like to work but have given up looking, and those working part-time because they cannot find full-time work). And there is little sign of recovery from an unprecedented collapse in labor-force participation, as many bail out of the workforce entirely."

In addition to his text evaluation, Gordon has created a colorful graphic to illustrate his findings.