Need help! I am confused about the concept of “long-term unemployment.”

My pleasure.

Very useful. Thank you!

I think the concept comes from American academia. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics defines long-term unemployment as being without work for 27 weeks (six months) or longer while actively looking for a job. It does not include people who have lost their jobs and given up on looking for employment. Long-term unemployment does not have one specific cause; rather, it is the result of multiple social, economic, and individual factors. Two main categories of unemployment are cyclical and structural: cyclical unemployment occurs as a result of an economic recession, whereas structural unemployment occurs when workers’ skills don’t meet the needs of the job market.