Some specifics on the long-term unemployed

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Friday’s job numbers indicate that businesses aren’t creating jobs as quickly as economists had hoped. That’s bad news for the nearly 6.8 million people who have been out of work for six months or longer.

A report out Friday from the National Employment Law Project shows more specifics about this group of people. It shows that men are especially hard-hit by long-term unemployment, and that sectors such as financial activities, manufacturing and transportation are especially plagued by long-term unemployment. “In each and every major economic sector, the story is the same,” the report says. “Job growth is not nearly enough to pick up former workers and won’t do so for months or years to come.”

Here are more specifics from the study:

• The average duration of long-term unemployment has increased 110% since the beginning of the recession, from 16.6 weeks in December of 2007 to 34.4 weeks in May 2010.

• The problem seems to be plaguing older, white males. Males make up 60% of the long-term unemployed, whites make up 72% of the group, and there are more people age 45 and over without work than in any other age group.

• The average duration of unemployment has doubled in some industries. In financial activities, the duration has gone from 15.7 weeks in the fourth quarter of 2007 to 32.8 weeks in the fourth quarter of 2009. In manufacturing, the duration has gone from 20 weeks to 31.9 weeks in the same time period.

• Manufacturing is the sector with the most long-term unemployed. There are 885,173 manufacturing workers who have been out of work for six months or longer. Construction has slightly less, with 828,789 workers without a job for that long. Professional and business services and wholesale and retail trade were also affected.

-- Alana Semuels