U.S. Median Weeks Unemployed

## What this measures

How long the typical unemployed person has been looking for work, in weeks.

## Why it matters

Displacement only becomes lasting unemployment when people can't find new work quickly. A rising median means re-employment is getting slower.

## How to read it

Read the trend over several months. It rises late in downturns and when workers have to change occupations rather than jobs.

## What it does not say

It measures spells still in progress, not completed ones, and it ignores people who stopped looking.

## Source

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