Long-term unemployment affects 1 in 4 U.S. job seekers

It now takes more than 23 weeks on average for an unemployed person in the US to find a new job. For 1 in 4 unemployed people, or 1.8 million Americans, they are still job hunting six months later.  

Long-term unemployment is now at its highest level in three years. That’s not great news for those affected by the layoffs sweeping through companies like Target, Amazon, Nike and Pinterest in the first months of the year. 

As of January 2026, there are 386,000 more long-term unemployed Americans—those who have been looking for jobs for more than 27 weeks—than there were in January 2025. 

How did we get here?

A “low-hire, low-fire” environment defined much of 2025 and is now carrying over into 2026. While this has kept the unemployment rate historically low, at just over 4% in December, news of corporate layoffs were—and still are—never far from the headlines. 

The outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that companies slashed more than 108,000 jobs last month, the most since October and the worst January for job cuts since 2009.

U.S. employers added just 181,000 jobs in all of 2025, compared to 1.46 million in 2024. Private employers added 22,000 jobs in January, payroll processor ADP reported last week, again far fewer than economists had predicted. Another upshot of a “low-hire, low-fire” environment—fewer people quitting their jobs, with most opting to sit tight in their roles and ride out a tumultuous economy.

This perfect storm means those in need of a job are having a harder time finding one. 

It’s simple math: The supply of job seekers is far outpacing demand. Roughly one million more people are seeking work than there were available jobs as of December, according to BLS data analyzed by Indeed. 

By now, they’ve also exhausted their 26 weeks of unemployment insurance benefits in many cases, which replace less than 40% of a person’s previous income on average.

The long-term unemployment issue shows no signs of abating. Instead, faced with a stagnant market and a broken social contract, many are getting creative with solutions. 

The unemployed-to-self-employed pipeline has never been stronger. Others are channelling their inner doomsday prepper.

Some, instead of spending their days poring over job listings or firing out résumés, are simply accepting their fate and reframing it as their funemployment era. 

Whatever the case—a lot of Americans are out of work. And staying that way for a long time.