The Congressional Budget Office has a new report out on unemployment in the U.S, "Understanding and Responding to Persistently High Unemployment". "The United States is experiencing the longest stretch of high unemployment since the Great Depression."

Characteristics of the Labor Force and the Unemployed, March, 2011
Men make up 53% of the labor force and 59% of the unemployed

• Married persons make up 43% of the labor force and 61% of the unemployed
• 25-54 year olds make up the majority of the labor force, 68%, and the highest number of unemployed, 61%. I wish this was broken down further.
• The South makes up the highest percentage of the U.S. labor force, 36%, and the highest percent of unemployed, 35%

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"Weak demand for goods and services as a result of the recession and its aftermath, accounts for about two-and-a-half percentage points of the 8.5% December, 2011, unemployment rate. CBO estimates that an increase in skill and locational mismatches accounted for roughly half a percentage point of the increase in unemployment during and following the recent recession. Educational and health care services is the only large industry showing employment gains)."

Possible changes to the Unemployment Insurance (UI)program mentioned in this article include: offering wage insurance payments to people who accept a job that pays less than their previous job; using UI benefits to temporarily place the unemployed in jobs with private-sector employers; supplementing the earnings of workers who, instead of being laid off, are offered reduced hours (commonly referred to as short-time compensation, or STC).

Is it possible that programs like the WPA and CCC, updated for this century, might be worth pursuing?