Graph of Long Term Unemployment

Okay, this scares me. here's a graph from an article in the New York Times last week concerning long term unemployment:

The number of long term unemployed is spiking about three times higher than it has been for the last thirty years. It is much higher than the recession of early eighties, and that one was rough. As a percentage of the workforce, it works out to be about 2.5%.

The economy is beginning to show signs of improvement, but not quickly enough for these folks. Many of them are subsisting on unemployment benefits, and those benefits are starting to run out.

The old saying is that necessity is the mother of invention. A lot of people are going to have to be very creative to eke out a living for the next few years.