Long-Term Unemployment is Key to Puzzle

Applications for new unemployment benefits came down a bit to 297,000 for the previous week, says the Labor Department.

But the four-week average remains just a whisker below the 300,000 job per week level. But as the Wall Street Journal noted this week, short-term unemployment is moving down while unemployment of those out of work for more than 27 weeks is still stubbornly high.

Economists are puzzled by the discrepancy.

However some people like myself have suggested that perhaps we aren’t training and educating folks for the jobs available to workers in the modern economy.

We live in a time when graduates with an associates degree pay less for college yet earn more out of school than those with a bachelor’s degree.