U.S. Average Weeks Unemployed

## What this measures

How long unemployed people have been looking for work, on average, in weeks.

## Why it matters

It shows how hard it is to get back into work. The average is pulled up by the long-term unemployed, so it rises well above the median when many people are stuck out of work for months.

## How to read it

Read it beside the median: the gap between the two is the weight of the long tail of long spells. Both rise late in downturns and fall slowly in recoveries.

## What it does not say

It measures spells still in progress, not completed ones, and it ignores people who stopped looking. CPS capped reported durations at two years before 2011 and at five years since, which raised the average a little from 2011.

## Source

Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, series UEMPMEAN ("Average Weeks Unemployed"; BLS LNS13008275). Palanor pulls it from the FRED API (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis) nightly. Bureau of Labor Statistics data are in the public domain.