The number of people unemployed 15 weeks or longer, as a percentage of the civilian labor force.
The overall trend (population “All”) is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Statistics from the Current Population Survey, Historical data for the “A” tables of the Employment Situation News Release. Breakdowns by gender, race, age, and educational attainment are produced by the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, using microdata from the monthly Current Population Survey.
The labor force includes two main groups of people: those who are currently employed, and those who are not currently employed but have actively looked for work in the prior four weeks and are currently available for work. People who are not working and are waiting to be recalled to a job from which they have been temporarily laid off are also counted as part of the labor force.