US jobless claims near 57-year low as layoffs fall in September

Long term unemployment remains a problem. Lots of workers leaving the prime age working cohort every year through retirement and death, but companies are still reluctant to hire new or replace attrition in the current macro.

It’s Taking Longer for Unemployed to Find a Job Even as US Economy Grows - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-29/long-term... | https://archive.ph/LPKwN - September 29th, 2026

- The average time it takes to find a job recently surpassed six months, and the resulting rise in long-term unemployment is unprecedented outside of recessions.

- The nearly 2 million Americans searching for work for 27 weeks or longer are getting left behind as central bankers focus on fighting persistent inflation.

- Economists estimate the unemployment rate remained at 4.1% in the September jobs report, but the longer job searches are often hitting white-collar workers and young people at the start of their career.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48852090 (citations)

(~4M Boomers retire a year, ~11k/day, ~2M people 55+ die every year, about half of which are in the labor force; that means ~13k-14k workers leave the labor force every day in the US, ~400k/month)