Ryan Avent connects the high unemployment rate to wage stickiness. He adds that there's "no realistic way for [the long-term unemployed] … to sell themselves at a sufficient discount":
How do you advertise that you're willing to work for next to nothing? You could put it on your resume, but it still might not get noticed and if it did the potential employer might read it as a signal of a lack of fitness. One of the weird things about the American labour market is that most or all wage negotiation is done after an employer decides whether it wants you or not.
Chart from a report (pdf) by the National Employment Law Project. Kevin Drum explains it:
As you can see, we lost only a small number of low-paying jobs during the Great Recession and we've since gained almost all of them back. But mid-wage and high-wage occupations? Those are the jobs that really drive recovery, and they're still very deeply in the hole.
The Dish 