Letter from the Editor

September 2011

Long-Term Unemployment

The government shutdown in July affected thousands of state workers and many others in the private sector. While a lot of state employees were on edge during those three weeks, they were luckier than most people who are laid off. They knew the shutdown would be temporary and that they would be returning to their old jobs eventually.

That’s not the case for the long-term unemployed — the subject of a story by Amanda Rohrer in this issue of Trends. As Rohrer found while researching long-term unemployment, the number of people who have been out of work for longer than six months is growing in Minnesota. In 2007 about 17,400 state residents had been unemployed for longer than six months. By June of this year, that number had grown to about 75,800 people in Minnesota, including 47,700 who have been out of work for more than a year.

Still, Minnesota is doing relatively well compared with the rest of the country. U.S. Department of Labor data from August indicated 44.4 percent of unemployed Americans — compared with 33 percent of unemployed Minnesotans — had been out of work for at least six months. But finding out other details about the long-term unemployed can be difficult because of limitations on available data. It’s a complicated issue, with race, age, sex, education and industry of employment all playing roles.

As Rohrer points out, more needs to be known about the causes and circumstances of long-term unemployment to help get this group back to work.

Elsewhere in this issue, we look at inflation, the results of the green jobs survey, and the challenges former offenders face in finding work. Despite lost work time during the shutdown, our writers responded by producing some enlightening stories under tight deadlines. We’re happy to be back, contributing to the public understanding about Minnesota’s economy and labor force.

Monte Hanson
Editor