Long term unemployment UP

"The number of Americans out of work for at least six months is rising - reaching levels more typically seen deep into a recession or period of job contraction, not at the beginning."

"The number of long-term unemployed stood at a seasonally-adjusted 1.4 million in January, up about 21% from year-earlier levels and up 3% from the previous month. The full-year average for 2007 was 1.2 million long-term unemployed, nearly double the reading for 2000 - just before the last recession."

https://money.cnn.com/2008/02/01/news/economy/longterm_unemployment/index.htm?postversion=2008020209

Discuss.

Just read your sig,

And short term unemployment is DOWN. Even though the number of jobs
decreased last month. Lies, damn lies and statistics.

Unemployment is measured not by the number of people that do no have
jobs, but by the number of people who are actively looking for jobs that
do not currently have a job.

So short term unemployment is down most likely because fewer people are
looking for jobs because of the intense media coverage of the "coming
recession" (self-fulfilling prophecy?).

I'm guessing that the long term unemployment figures are skewed by the fact
that we are coming from a time of prosperity where lots of people were
positive about their chances of joining the workforce, and were hence all in
the market for a job.