Long-term unemployment

Looking at the state jobless rate only tells you so much. Dig a little deeper and the story becomes far more serious than December's 12.4 percent unemployment rate. More than one-in-three unemployed Californians have been out of work longer than six months, a categorically sometimes called chronic unemployment. Many of these folks are not even included in the regular unemployment data because they have given up looking for work. From the OC Register:

In December there were 726,000 people in California who have been unemployed 27-plus weeks up from 283,000 a year earlier -- a 156% jump. That is a major reversal from normal economic times when the newly unemployed -- those out of work less than five weeks -- typically dominate the unemployment rolls. Now the newly laid off only make up 20.8% of California's unemployed.