Vox: 7 types of people who are out of work, categorized with data

Here are the seven groups they came up with. I'll give a quick run-down of the groups, but their report delves much deeper into the demographics of each one.

Less-educated young people: This is a diverse group made up of people who don't have high school degrees. They're often those who have either never worked or those who lost their low-wage jobs. About one in three people in this group are raising children under 6, and about one in five are single parents.

Less-educated middle-age people: The people in this group are often not proficient in English, and about one in three people are not US citizens. This is the largest swath of unemployed people nationwide.

Less-educated older people: This group has a hard time reentering the workforce because about one in five people are disabled, and fewer than two-thirds speak English "very well." About half of this group was born outside the US.

Moderately educated younger people: These are people who completed some college. For the younger moderately educated, about 39 percent are caring for children under 18, and often they have worked jobs as home health aides and sales representatives. Those who attend school are nontraditional students who are looking for work to get them through school.

Moderately educated older people: This group is predominantly white, and 90 percent are US citizens. Ross speculates they are often dislocated workers who gained a lot of on-the-job experience, but were laid off or demand for their skill set has lessened. What's hard about this group is that older folks are less likely to want to go back to school, especially if they're eyeing retirement. Many of them don't have fond memories of school. [...]

Highly educated younger people: The younger folks who are highly educated are predominantly white and Asian, and they are either recently out of school and looking for jobs or laid off and not necessarily in a hurry to find a new job.

Highly educated older people: The older folks are predominantly white, and have a median household income of almost $84,000. So often they are professionals who are waiting for the right job to come along, or people who moved with their families for various reasons and are unable to find work in their fields.

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