[gruez]

>I wonder how much of this is just people no longer able to claim unemployment.

Can you elaborate on this? If people are unable to claim unemployment, shouldn't that incentivize them to get a job, causing the figure to go down?

[mandelbrotwurst]

It would incentivize them to get jobs, but it wouldn’t necessarily mean that they’d be able to. They might even become less likely to find work as they’re less able to meet their basic needs.

[Igelau]

In my state I had to provide a log of my attempts to get employed, so Unemployment Benefits never disincentivized me in the first place.

After my benefit ran out, more opportunities didn't magically appear. I was still just as incentivized and still just as jobless.

[naebother]

I thought these numbers were unemployment claims, but looking into it a bit more seems like this is a survey. I was confused by if you can only claim unemployment for on average 26 weeks, then the number of people unemployed for 27 weeks or over would not include those people. But a survey would probably account for these people.