Unemployed humans face ever-longer searches as hiring remains stubbornly stagnant, proving hope springs eternal.
The U.S. labor market has apparently decided that hiring is a spectator sport, adding just 29,000 jobs last month while leaving roughly one job opening for every 244 people who want one — a ratio that makes a game of musical chairs look like a generous welfare program. Unemployment sits at a tidy 4.2%, which sounds almost respectable until you learn that nearly two million of the seven million-plus idle have been job hunting so long their résumés are technically antiques. In several states, benefits are expiring before careers do, forcing workers to discover that the true safety net is a family member with a spare couch. Expect the usual political theater: one party calling it a blip, the other calling it a crime, and both pretending the other is responsible. Meanwhile, the long-term unemployed keep perfecting the art of explaining six-month gaps in interviews that may never come.