Long-term unemployment is becoming the “status quo” in today’s job market.

Tequila Turner received her last regular paycheck in October 2024. Since then, she has left a stable career in corporate IT for freelance projects and gig work, including delivering for DoorDash.

Her income has plummeted from six figures last year to a fraction of what it was last year, she tells me by phone between deliveries. She moved in with a friend to save money. And she is looking for a new job and working hard, but so far she has not had any luck.

Turner, 47, said she lost her job more than a year ago when her contract with the bank ended. The Kansas City, Missouri, resident is part of a growing percentage of Americans who are not only unemployed but have been looking for work for more than six months, making them the “long-term unemployed,” as defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Official statistics on the job market showed that job growth in January was stronger than expected, the labor economy remained relatively stable, with more than half of the jobs added in the healthcare sector, and the unemployment rate fell slightly to 4.3% (7.4 million people).

However, the proportion of people who have been unemployed for more than six months has risen over the past three years. Long-term unemployment rates typically decline when the job market recovers after a recessionary shock, such as a pandemic or the Great Recession.

Currently, one in four unemployed Americans, or 1.8 million Americans, have been looking for work for more than six months, which means in most cases they have also exhausted their unemployment insurance benefits. Benefits vary by state, but on average equal less than 40% of your previous income.

In today’s tough employment environment, stories like Mr. Turner’s are becoming more common.

The pool of job opportunities has been shrinking for some time. Since the post-pandemic jobs boom in 2022, the number of job openings, hires and voluntary resignations (indicating confidence that workers can get new jobs) have declined.

Meanwhile, U.S. employers added just 181,000 jobs in all of 2025 (compared to 1.46 million in 2024), and companies announced 108,435 layoffs in January.

These combined factors mean that people looking for work have difficulty finding work.

Nicole Bashaw, a labor economist at career site ZipRecruiter, said companies are no longer hiring and are gradually shedding employees to correct the overemployment left in the wake of the pandemic recession.

“What we’re facing right now is a complete standstill in births for both workers and employers,” she says. After other recessions, such as the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, workers moved jobs (and even quit themselves), but now they’re staying put.

“For workers who have lost their jobs, unemployment is becoming a status quo rather than a temporary job,” Bashaw said.

People who have been out of work for long periods of time told CNBC Make It that the experience has made them lose confidence and question their career decisions. Some worked part-time to earn a living, while others moved in with their families.

They say they are doing everything they can to follow their job search strategies and even trying new methods, but nothing still seems to be working.

The tough job market is hitting certain demographics hard, including young professionals.

Chris Fong, 25, said when he was laid off from his start-up company in March 2025, he didn’t think it would be that difficult to find a job. He attended a top university, did well in his previous job, and lives in the Bay Area, a major job market.

But in the months since, Fong said he has noticed fewer entry-level jobs, often competing against candidates with more years of experience or graduate degrees than he does.

Fong’s observations reflect a larger trend. According to a study by Revelio Labs, the number of entry-level job openings decreased by about 35% in mid-2025 compared to January 2023.

He also noticed that as companies “became more selective,” the interview process became longer. One recent company required eight rounds, and he still didn’t get the role.

Fong lives off his savings and recently started working part-time at a friend’s film rental equipment company. It’s minimum wage, but it helps pay for living expenses. In January, he began documenting his unemployment journey on Instagram as a creative outlet and to regain control of his life and career story.

“I was tired of recruiters and companies judging me based on my previous experience on my resume,” he says. “I thought, ‘Let’s start something on my own.'”

Some recent graduates say changes in immigration policy have added stress to their searches.

Sakshi Patel (22) completed her master’s degree in financial management in May 2025. She is currently volunteering at a nonprofit organization as a business analyst, but as an international student from India, she needs to find a job by spring in order to stay in the United States.

Now, she worries that new policies like the Trump administration’s overhaul of the H1-B visa program and the addition of a $100,000 application fee will discourage companies from hiring international students like her who need visa sponsorship.

Patel says she is making every effort to be employed. She lives in Boston but is willing to relocate anywhere and is open to jobs unrelated to her major. She estimates she sends out 30 to 40 customized applications each week, but receives few responses.

“While long-term unemployment is still talked about as a personal shortcoming, it is actually increasingly a structural problem,” she added. “A lot of people are doing everything they’re supposed to be doing, but they’re not getting jobs.”

Miriam Samake laments the lack of transparency in employment today. When she landed a job as a multimedia news journalist in 2023, she contacted the news director on LinkedIn, set up two phone interviews, and scheduled a gig after graduate school. The contractual role ended in June 2025.

The 27-year-old from Sterling, Virginia, keeps all of her application information from the past seven months in an Excel spreadsheet. That’s 150 positions, including two positions where I made it to the final interview but didn’t receive an offer. One company, she says, kicked her out completely.

“At that point, if I get an offer, I’m 100 percent willing to take it,” she says. “In a way, it’s sad. I don’t know if I can be this loud anymore.”

In another sign of a difficult job market, more workers are moving laterally or taking pay cuts in new jobs, and the percentage of new employees who say they’ve landed their “dream job” is decreasing, according to ZipRecruiter data for the final months of 2025.

Samake says he doesn’t have high expectations for the landing. “I’m looking for places that have diversity. I’m a black woman, and that’s important to me,” she says. “Do I need to lower my expectations for that salary or the salary I want? Should I shell out $5,000, $10,000 and accept a lower salary to get my foot in the door?”

Like many job seekers, Samake is frustrated by applying for jobs online and having no idea if the material she pours in will make it to a human reviewer. As of mid-2025, the average number of job openings was 242, or three times the 2017 average, according to Greenhouse data reported by Business Insider.

“It’s a very spiritual war,” Samake says.

Even experienced workers struggle. Greg Ross, 52, remembers making it to the final round of interviews with four companies in 2022 and getting offers from two competing companies. The Washington, D.C.-based executive communications expert joined home repair market ThumbTack in June 2022, but was laid off along with 14% of the company by December.

He started looking for a full-time job in 2024, but says it’s difficult to get interviews. “In a short period of time, I went from feeling extremely in demand to feeling completely ignored,” Ross says. “My skills haven’t changed, so either the market has changed or I’m just being hired less.”

Bashaw, the ZipRecruiter economist, says both are likely. Bashaw said companies are scaling back hiring due to a number of economic factors (such as high interest rates and stubborn inflation), political challenges (such as new tariff policies), and changing business objectives (such as investments in AI).

And currently, the supply of job seekers exceeds the demand for employment. As of December, there were about 1 million more people looking for work than there were jobs available, according to BLS data analyzed by Indeed.

Andrew Bohan said one of the most difficult things about dealing with long-term unemployment is not only the constant rejection, but also the fact that when people ask how the search is going, they don’t get a satisfactory answer.

Bohan lost her paralegal job in August 2024, ran out of unemployment insurance benefits in March 2025, and moved from Chicago to Baltimore in January 2026 to live with her family and lower her bills.

“I like to tell people that being unemployed isn’t the problem; the real problem is keeping your mind confused,” he says. He says he sometimes feels pressure to proactively “prove” his situation among friends and family, which is difficult to demonstrate without an interview or offer.

Unemployment can have long-term effects. Research shows that unemployment is associated with poorer psychological and physical health, social withdrawal, and reduced long-term income. Other studies have shown that people who experience unemployment tend to earn about 5% to 15% less in their new jobs than similar workers who don’t lose their jobs.

Bohan recently unsuccessfully applied for an hourly service job, but is trying not to get too pessimistic about her situation. Otherwise, it shows in his interactions with everyone from recruiters to friends and family. “You need to focus on what’s in front of you and what you can do about it,” he says.

It can be as simple as getting a good night’s rest so you can apply for a new job the next day. “I don’t like being lazy. I want to get back to work,” Bohan says.

Turner, the Kansas City risk manager, hopes long-term job seekers realize that they need a lot of self-care and encouragement to avoid internalizing the challenges of unemployment.

For those who have a job or know someone who is struggling to find a job, “I want them to know that this is not a choice,” Turner said. “This is a first for us. These are people who have supported their families and themselves all their lives.”

She says many job seekers like Turner have years of experience and valuable skills acquired over their careers. Now, she says, all they need is a chance to show it off to employers. “We want to do the work.”

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