The 9.7% unemployment refuses to shrink, showing a 12.79% increase from last year's levels. As a result, the number of people who have been unemployed for over half a year increased by 6.75% compared to last month's levels. The 6.55 million long-term unemployed individuals figure is 102% higher than that released in March 2009. More negative news on the employment front came from the U.S Department of Labor report where it was revealed that the number of first time unemployment insurance claims increased by 1.36% within the last month - although there was a 9.8% decrease in the last week of April.
