The Forgotten Long-Term Unemployed
Annie Lowrey and I have an article in Friday’s paper about the gigantic, overlooked underclass of long-term unemployed workers, whose safety net has now frayed bare and whose troubles are probably holding back the overall jobs picture as they become less and less employable. This 4.8-million-strong group has gotten very little attention during the presidential campaign, despite the candidates’ purported focus on the economy.

In fact, in the second debate, when Candy Crowley directly asked the candidates how to alleviate long-term unemployment, Mitt Romney offered some broad statements about joblessness in general before quickly switching topics to the Detroit auto bailout. President Obama never addressed the question at all.
economix.blogs.nytimes.com