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The August Jobs Number Held Steady. The Long-Term Unemployed Didn't.
9/16/2026
The headline from the August employment situation was easy to write: unemployment rate unchanged at 4.1%, 569,000 net new employed persons, participation rate ticking up 0.2 points to 61.6%. Fine. Stable. Moving on. Don't move on yet. The Number Buried in the Duration Table When…
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