U.S. changes how it measures long-term unemployment

[defendandprotect]

U.S. changes how it measures long-term unemployment

By Rick Hampson, USA TODAY
So many Americans have been jobless for so long that the government is changing how it records long-term unemployment.
Citing what it calls "an unprecedented rise" in long-term unemployment, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), beginning Saturday, will raise from two years to five years the upper limit on how long someone can be listed as having been jobless.

The move could help economists better measure the severity of the nation's prolonged economic downturn.

The change is a sign that bureau officials "are afraid that a cap of two years may be 'understating the true average duration' — but they won't know by how much until they raise the upper limit," says Linda Barrington, an economist who directs the Institute for Compensation Studies at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations.


http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2010-12-28-1Ajobless28_ST_N.

[Broderick]

1. ahhhh

that is going to hurt. Wish they would paint the right picture.

[cutlassmama]

2. from two years to five years...later they will need to change it to ten years.

[jannyk]

3. Why was there a limit? n/t

[tritsofme]

4. I would guess

The thinking was that if you have been out of work for more than two years then you are unlikely to reenter the labor force.

[pinqy]

5. There was no limit on being counted

What the article was referring to was that when asking how long someone had been looking for work, there was an upper bound of 99 weeks. Anything more than that was classified as 99 weeks. So this change won't affect the number of unemployed, and probably won't change any published numbers (since Table A-12 of the Employment Situation, duration of unemployment, only has the categories of less than 5 weeks, 5 to 14 weeks, 15 weeks and over, 15 to 26 weeks, and more than 27 weeks.

All this does is allow better calculation of long term unemployed. Here is the BLS Announcement

Effective with data for January 2011, the Current Population Survey (CPS) will be modified to allow respondents to report longer durations of unemployment. Presently, the CPS accepts unemployment durations of up to 2 years; any response of unemployment duration greater than this is entered as 2 years. Starting with data for January 2011, respondents will be able to report unemployment durations of up to 5 years. This change will likely affect estimates of average (mean) duration of unemployment. The change will not affect the estimate of the number of unemployed persons and will not affect other data series on the duration of unemployment.

bolding mine