By Rick Pluta, Michigan Public Radio Network
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-922130.mp3
LANSING, MI –
A report by the Michigan League for Human Services says the number of people in the state who were unemplyed for six months or more exploded during the auto crisis. The report also finds the long-term unemployed are most likely to be African American or Hispanic workers.
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At the beginning of the decade, six and a half percent of unemployed people in Michigan went without a job for six months or more. By 2009, that had reached 41%.
Sharon Parks of the League for Human Services says the long-term unemployed face a bigger challenge than people who've more recently lost their jobs. Studies show the longer someone goes without a job, the harder it becomes to get re-employed.
"These are people whose families are struggling to make ends meet and are eventually going to run out of unemployment or have already," she says.
Parks says that's already playing out as people lose their homes and more families apply for public assistance.
The League report does not look at 2010 data, and Michigan's unemployment rate - while still high - appears to have stabilized this year.