The national unemployment rate jumped to 6.4 percent in June -- the highest it's been since 1994. Since recession began in 2001, the private sector has lost 3.1 million jobs. And it is taking longer for displaced workers to find a job. In "Unemployment Rate Jumps, While Payrolls Decline," the Economic Policy Institute says it's beginning to look a lot like the crunch in the early 1980s: today, the average unemployed worker spends 19.8 weeks looking for work, the highest number since August 1983, when the average unemployment time hit 20 weeks and the unemployment rate was 9.5 percent.

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