Before we decide that the 2012 election should be decided on social issues, it’s worth revisiting a recent update from the Pew Fiscal Analysis Initiative on the long-term unemployed:
In the first quarter of 2012 (the 3-month period from January to March), approximately 29.5 percent of the nearly 13.3 million Americans who were unemployed had been jobless for a year or more, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). That percentage translates into 3.9 million workers, slightly more than the population of Oregon.
In a similar vein, Andrew Biggs has recently discussed the wage-scarring impact of long-term youth unemployment.