Being unemployed for such a long time can have negative effects on workers’ skills and their attachment to the labor force, thereby possibly reducing the productive capacity of our economy.
Here in Los Angeles, the issue of workforce skills is all the more concerning because 13 percent of the city’s residents are reported to have less than a ninth-grade education, a share of loweducation workers that is about twice the national average. How surprising is the texture and pace of this economic recovery?