Notable & Quotable

Several studies show that about one-third of those receiving unemployment benefits get a job immediately after their eligibility expires. And a quick survey of help-wanted signs and classified ads in most areas suggest that businesses are looking for workers. In 2009, when the economy was in worse shape, three million jobs went begging, while 13 million Americans were unemployed. The long-term unemployment rate now is actually higher than it was in the Great Depression. But does anyone truly believe that our economy is in worse shape than it was in 1933 . . .

Something else is at work—and it appears that we’re succumbing to the European pattern of unemployment. For decades, the U.S. has had lower unemployment rates, in good times and bad, than many European nations. In 2007, for example, the U.S. unemployment rate was 5%, compared to 7.9% in France and 8.4% in Germany. But Europe has traditionally had a more generous safety net, including unemployment benefits, making it less attractive to Europeans who lost their jobs to accept other work that might entail moving or accepting lower wages.

In some cases, Europeans who lost their jobs could expect to earn as much in government benefits as they did while working and to do so for at least a year. No wonder unemployment remained high in essentially good economies.

We’ve not had that problem in the U.S. in the past. Historically, Americans have been willing to pick up and move when jobs disappeared, but American mobility is down to its lowest level in years . . . . The real problem in long-term unemployment may be a president who wants to emulate the European social model. The more he succeeds in prolonging benefits, the greater the chance that long-term unemployment will remain high even when jobs are available.