In April 2010, the Pew Fiscal Analysis Initiative released A Year or More: The High Cost of Long-Term Unemployment, which examined the extent of the country’s long-term unemployment problem and its impact on the nation’s fiscal condition. The report defined “long-term unemployment” as a jobless period of a year or longer.

This series of charts builds on that work and illustrates different dimensions of the U.S. unemployment challenge, such as who make up the long-term unemployed population, where the long-term unemployed are located, and whether workers are being laid off permanently or temporarily.