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What is traditionally regarded as the ‘unemployment rate’ is the labor department’s U-3 statistic. This statistic is the percentage of people who are jobless but are actively seeking work, and as of March, it is 10.2%. Another statistic, which has only been official since 1994, is the U-6. The U-6 also includes people who are either underemployed or who are not actively seeking new employment. It is currently 17.5%, the highest it has ever been since having been made an official statistic or otherwise.

The reason many of these unemployed Americans are not seeking jobs is discouragement. The most recent growth of employment and the economy in general was tied to the real estate industry. As this industry has bottomed out in the past few years, many jobs that are directly related to or auxiliary to this industry are not as prevalent as they were in years past.

Another reason workers feel less incentive to look for jobs again is that government jobless benefits are more extensive than ever. Workers who become unemployed stay unemployed longer than what has been historically typical. Though this contributes, you should be asking yourself where these jobs are going to come from.  In the past decade 40 percent of new jobs, as aforementioned, were in real estate and are now gone.

Many workers will likely have to become acquainted with new career fields, and this presents a huge challenge to those workers, as well as putting some strain on job markets that still have work to offer. The hiring process will become more competitive. While this may create more activity in the current ranks of the unemployed, it may serve to further strain the economy, as the U-6 number is very slow to recover.