Bloomberg Surveillance · Thursday, July 9, 2026
Nada Richardson of IDT highlights a stagnant labor market, characterized by historically high unemployment for teenagers and a significant rise in long-term unemployment (over 27 weeks). She notes that it is becoming increasingly difficult for both inexperienced and long-term unemployed individuals to enter or re-enter the workforce.
“If you look at very early career I wrote a blog this week about teenage unemployment. It's the highest unemployment rate we've seen outside the pandemic period in the last decade. It's around fourteen point five fourteen point six percent. It's harder for these inexperienced workers to get a job.”
“And then I'd like to push back to those who are trying to get into this labor market, those who have been unemployed for twenty seven weeks or more above twenty percent, twenty seven percent. Now, we haven't seen this level in four years, going all the way back to the pandemic recovery.”
“It's hard to enter this labor market as an inexperienced worker, and it's hard to get back into this labor market. And that's what we're seeing. It's not just the layoffs. It's the rollofs.”