Recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the number of those who have been without a job for for at least 27 weeks has grown by nearly 50 percent from September to October, a major increase, according to CNN Business. Now there are 3.6 million such people in this country. While the economy also added about 638,000 jobs, the figure indicates a slowdown in job creation when compared to previous months, meaning that we will likely see the number of long-term unemployed grow even further.

What's more, this statistic specifically includes those whom the Bureau of Labor Statistics defines as unemployed, which technically means people who are out of work but actively looking for a new job. Many, looking at the state of the current economy, have given up on finding new work altogether, until conditions improve. And so while the official unemployment rate is 6.9 percent, other data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that if we count all the unemployed people, then add all those classified as "marginally attached to the labor force" (those who are unemployed and have not looked for a job in 12 months but want to work and are ready to do so), and all the "discouraged workers" (have given a job-market related reason for not currently looking for work), then we get an out-of-work rate of 8 percent. If we add those who are unemployed part time out of economic necessity, the combined population makes up 12.1 percent of the total workforce.

CNN noted that those who have been unemployed for a long time risk "unemployment stigma" despite the fact that layoffs have been fairly widespread. This means that the longer that people have been out of work, the more likely it is that they will remain out of work, as they are not building contacts, developing skills or achieving accomplishments that can be pointed out to future employers.