27 WEEKS AND COUNTING: LONG-TERM UNEMPLOYMENT IS ON THE RISE AND BLACK WORKERS ARE GETTING HIT ESPECIALLY HARD
We need to double down on the fight to realize socio-economic policies grounded in human rights, including the right to job at livable wages.
The most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals something that, while it plagues millions of workers, is too often overlooked: If you lose your gig in this labor market, there’s pretty good odds that’ll take a minute for you land another one. And if you’re Black and lose your job, your prospects are particularly bleak.
More pointedly, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly Jobs Report indicates that a growing percentage of the unemployed are finding themselves stuck in the quagmire of long-term unemployed. As defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, long-term unemployment “refers to an ongoing spell of unemployment that has lasted 27 continuous weeks or more.”
Put differently, the long term unemployed have been without a job for more than six months.
That is more than enough time for most folk’s unemployment benefits to dry up.
That’s more than enough time to get put your crib.
That’s more than enough time to get your whip possessed.
That’s more than enough time to jack your credit up.
And more than enough time to eat through whatever savings you got.
So, it’s a pretty big deal when the BLS reports that of the 7.4 million people unemployed, 1.9 million of them had spent the last “27 weeks or more”—unsuccessfully— trying to land a job.
Or think of it this way: More than one out of every four unemployed individuals—25.7%— had been jobless for more than 6 months.
And let’s be clear about something: As briefly mentioned at the beginning of this point, this is not a one and done thing. Over the last several months, we’ve seen a steady increase in the number and rate of job seekers who’ve been out of work for 27 weeks of longer.
Over the last four months, here’s the percentages of the unemployed who’ve been jobless for “27 weeks or longer”:
May 2025: 20.4
June 2025: 23.3
July 2025: 24.9
August: 25.7%
That last and most recent figure—25.7%— is the highest long-term unemployment rate since February 2022.
And, as mentioned from the get-go, Black workers get hit particularly hard by long-term unemployment. According to data from the Current Population Survey, the percentage of white unemployed workers whose “spell” of unemployment was “27 weeks or more” was 21.8% for the second quarter of 2025. That’s up from the 20.5% figure recorded for the second quarter of 2024.
For Black people, though, the comparable figures are 25.7% and 21.5% for the second quarters of 2025 and 2024, respectively.
Pause for a second: What this currently means is more than one out of every four unemployed Black workers had been jobless for at least since months, compared to one out of every four unemployed whites.
What’s more, the racial gap in long-term unemployed has widened over the last year, jumping from one percentage point in the second quarter of 2024 (21.5% - 20.5%) to a difference of almost 4 percentage points during the second quarter of 2025 (25.7%-21.8%).
Again, long-term unemployment is rough for both white and Black workers but it’s particularly rugged for the latter.
CONCLUSIONS
This rise in long-term unemployment may very well be a warning sign that the health of the economy is worsening. It’s also a reminder, as if we need one, that the economic pain is unequally distributed. While the rise in long-term joblessness is terrible for white workers, it hits Black workers especially hard.
That millions of the unemployed have been jobless for more than six months is an indictment of this country’s economic policies and its callousness toward the very people—workers— who produce the nation’s wealth.
We have to double down on our commitment to economic justice and intensify our fight for socio-economic policies that are grounded in human rights, including the right to a job at livable wages.