Today’s solid jobs report shows a labor market that is moving in the right direction but still has a ways to go before everyone who would like to be working has a reasonable chance of finding a suitable job. In particular, Congress dealt the long-term unemployed a harsh blow when it allowed federal emergency jobless benefits to expire prematurely at the end of last year. Seven months later, long-term unemployment remains higher than when any of the previous seven emergency unemployment programs expired after previous recessions. In addition, the share of the population with a job remains well below where it was at the start of the recession.
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