About eight million Individuals reported being unemployed, based mostly on the Present Inhabitants Survey from January 2026. Why they have been unemployed varies throughout teams. Listed below are the explanations by age and highest training attained.
Why Individuals are unemployed
Of those that have been unemployed and searching for a job in January 2026
For these of their youthful years, it’s much more widespread to be getting into the workforce as a new entrant or coming off a break after working beforehand as a re-entrant. As soon as individuals are in the course of their work profession, getting laid off is the commonest cause for unemployment.
I anticipated that individuals who stop a earlier job could be a extra widespread cause, however the charge by no means goes over 20%. Perhaps this charge is partially dampened by those that have a brand new job lined up after which stop, so they’re by no means unemployed.
Schooling, which correlates with age, exhibits related charges as you go up in ranges. Though the charges for being laid off an a re-entrant are flipped between these with a Grasp’s diploma and people with a doctorate or skilled diploma. The excessive charge for laid off for Grasp’s degree staff is fascinating. I think that is associated to the kind of occupations for this group.
Notes
Knowledge comes from the January 2026 Present Inhabitants Survey by way of IPUMS, which I analyzed and ready in R. The chart above was made utilizing D3.
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