211 is the Loneliest Number When Waiting for a Job

The official average wait, from layoff to first day of a new job, has been increasing steadily for the last 10 months, and now clocks in at 211 days -- a whopping 30.2 weeks, or 7.5 months. That's the highest it's ever been since the Labor Department began keeping track, back in 1948. To the average American worker, that sounds like an awfully long time to go without gainful employment.