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The economy of the United States seems to be slowly recovering: manufacturing, mining, and temporary service firms added jobs in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But, one hallmark of this economic downturn has been the disparities in the way the unemployment rate has affected people according to age, race and ethnicity, educational attainment, and geography.

The unemployment rate for teenagers remains at 26.4 percent, while 15.5 percent of unemployed African Americans and 12.4 percent of unemployed Hispanics can't find jobs. Seventeen states, along with the District of Columbia, still have jobless rates well in the double digits, and the fate of the long - term unemployed is terrifying. Forty - six percent of the 15 million people out - of - work in this country has been unemployed for 27 weeks or more (quick math: that's more than six months). That number—the worst since the Great Depression—shows no signs of subsiding. “We're still in a tremendous labor market hole,” says Lawrence Katz, a professor of economics at Harvard University. “It will take four - and - a - half more years of consecutive months of job growth to get back to where the labor market was before the downturn.” Even then in 2007, Katz points out that the labor market was hardly rosy. Unemployment had not yet skyrocketed, but workers put up with stagnant wage growth.

So, what does this mean for the unemployed, underemployed, and the recent college graduates searching for work? Well, they'll have to cobble together part - time jobs to pay the rent or accept positions with lower salaries or fewer opportunities for growth. Long - term, as the economy rebounds, this nagging unemployment rate means the economic disparities in this country will keep growing.

42.According to the statistics, the United States hired more workers in May.