For people who have been out of work for an extended period of time during this economic crisis, the cost has been especially high. In 2011, the percentage of unemployed who were jobless for six months or more was 43.8 percent. More people were counted as long-term unemployed in 2011 than at any time since the government started keeping records in 1948: 6 million in any given month, which is the population of Houston and Los Angeles combined. Of people out of work for more than a year since the recession, only one in 10 will find work each month.
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