| The Associated Press analyzed nine economic recoveries since the Great Depression that lasted at least three years. By most measures, the recovery from the Great Recession of 2007-2009 is the weakest. Long-term unemployment has never been such a big problem. Here is the percentage of the unemployed who have been out of work for at least six months at this point _ three years and one month _ after a recession ended: |
| 1948-1949 3.9 percent |
| 1953-1954 8.9 percent |
| 1960-1961 12.8 percent |
| 1969-1970 7.4 percent |
| 1973-1975 11.1 percent |
| 1981-1982 14.8 percent |
| 1990-1991 21.3 percent |
| 2001 20.8 percent |
| 2007-2009 40.7 percent |