If you’ve been out of work for months, and still don’t have any leads on your next job, you’ve got a lot of company. According to the latest government job report, the average job search now takes over six months, the longest average since the government started tracking unemployment in 1948.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate is now at 9.8%, and there are over 5.4 million people who’ve been unemployed for more than 27 weeks. Even though layoffs have tapered off from their peak — 253,000 people lost their jobs in September, vs. over 600,000 per month earlier in the year — there hasn’t been a whole lot of new hiring.

Employment Situation [Bureau of Labor Statistics via Planet Money]

(Photo: Daquella manera)

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