Job hunters are having a tough time reentering the workforce.
According to a Sunday report from the Wall Street Journal, it now takes job seekers an average of six months to find employment, a month more than in years past.
The number of people unemployed, meaning without a job but trying to find work, is also higher now than it was at the same time last year. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest Employment Situation report, the unemployment rate rose from 3.7% in November 2023 to 4.2% in November 2024.
The report, which was released on December 6, 2024, stated that 7.1 million people were out of work compared to 6.3 million people at the same time last year.
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The number of long-term unemployed people is also up. In November, 1.7 million people said they had been looking for work for at least 27 weeks, or close to seven months, compared to 1.2 million people last year.
Continuing applications for unemployment are also reaching record-high levels, indicating that it’s taking job seekers longer to find work. Bloomberg reported in late December that continuing applications for unemployment benefits reached a three-year high, rising to 1.91 million for the week ending December 14.
“Labor market conditions are undeniably cooling,” EY senior economist Lydia Boussour told Entrepreneur last month.
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According to the WSJ, it’s especially difficult to find a job in tech, law, and media. Companies hired more in these sectors when coming back from the pandemic but have now cut down on their need for new hires.
As these high-paying white-collar jobs disappear from job boards, job postings have diminished in quantity overall. According to the Journal, there’s just one job posting per unemployed worker now instead of the two job postings available in early 2022.
“Hiring is too low; it’s really hard to find a job,” Guy Berger, chief economist at labor market group the Burning Glass Institute, told CNBC last month.
A new Gallup poll released in December adds another factor to the mix. The poll shows that U.S. workers who are currently employed are looking for work at the highest level since 2015. The majority, or 51%, are actively seeking a new job, adding to the competition that unemployed workers face.
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