I am thankful that I am not unemployed

First the graph here shows (ht):

The blue line is the number of workers unemployed for 27 weeks or more. The red line is the same data as a percent of the civilian workforce.

According to the BLS, there are a record 6.31 million workers who have been unemployed for more than 26 weeks (and still want a job). This is a record 4.1% of the civilian workforce.

More than six million people unemployed for more than half-a-year and still not discouraged enough and are looking for jobs!  What a recession this has been ....

Krugman messes up my mind some more:

We’ve been through the second-worst financial crisis in the history of the world, and we’ve barely begun to recover: 29 million Americans either can’t find jobs or can’t find full-time work.

So, can we help out the unemployed?:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took a shot across the Capitol at Sen. Jim Bunning, slamming the Kentucky Republican for his one-man filibuster of unemployment benefits, which are due to expire Sunday.

"It is really hard to understand why one senator in the United States Senate is holding up the extension of unemployment insurance at this time," said Pelosi. "But he is, and I'm pleased that the Senate Democrats are trying to make a move to dislodge that."

Adds Megan McArdle:

His cunning plan to put a hold on the reauthorization of unemployment benefits until the Democrats agree to fund them out of existing stimulus dollars will not do much good, and it could do great harm.