It just means they’ve been out of work so long that they have used up their unemployment benefits. The participation rate says that more are not working in the USA than ever. After they give up working for a few weeks, they are not counted as “unemployed” (even if they’re getting an unemployment check), and after 6 months(?), iirc, they use up their unemployment benefits. So, we’re talking about the long term unemployed that the government no longer has to admit exists.
No, is because Americans have physiologically changed over the past decade.
Formerly the hardest working people on the planet would now rather sit on their asses than work. They’ve turned into bums.
Geneticists are working hard to figure out why.
People filing first time claims for unemployment benefits have been “out of work so long that they have used up their unemployment benefits?” Doesn’t compute.
A good employee will be able to keep their job and only be laid off as a last resort, when this happens they usually have no problem finding another job.
A bad employee will often be kept around in great economic times because cutting overhead simply isn't a priority, but when there's a downturn they are the first to go and they will typically have a harder time finding a new job because their lack of motivation is obvious.
Regardless of the economy there will ALWAYS be certain jobs where hard-working and qualified people are in demand; however, these jobs change over time.
I absolutely KNOW that there are exceptions, and a lot of it has to do with a person's job skill and where they live, but a great many of the long-term unemployed and underemployed today really aren't people that employers want under any circumstances. What companies have done the past seven years is get rid of "dead weight" and keep it gone. What they are left with now is the workers they WANT AND NEED, so the only reason to lay anyone off is if the business itself is in real trouble.
Keep in mind that this 42 year low statistic is NEW jobless claims (e.g. people who had a job a week ago and now they don't). When companies WANT AND NEED the employees they have, they don't get rid of anyone and this is the category that most companies fall into today.