Long-term US unemployment rate rises to 27% despite strong August hiring

The US economy added 162,000 jobs in August, crushing the consensus estimate of roughly 56,000. The headline unemployment rate held steady at 4.1%. But beneath that polished surface, a growing segment of American workers is getting left behind. The share of unemployed Americans who have been out of work for 27 weeks or longer, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ threshold for “long-term unemployed,” climbed to 27.0% in August 2026. That’s up from 25.5% in July, representing approximately 1.93 million people compared to 1.77 million just one month earlier. A tale of two labor markets The August jobs report, released September 4 by the BLS, paints a picture that depends entirely on which numbers you focus on. Nonfarm payrolls blew past expectations by a factor of nearly three. The labor force participation rate ticked up to 61.6%. The median duration of unemployment rose to 11.4 weeks in August, up from 10.5 weeks in July. And for those already past the six-month mark, the situation is compounding. The total number of unemployed Americans sits at approximately 7.03 million. That means the 1.93 million long-term unemployed now represent more than a quarter of everyone looking for work. Th...