What does a Rocket Scientist have in common with a High School Drop-out? More than you think after seeing this unemployment graphic...

The RED bar shows the unemployment rate for different education levels.  It is pretty obvious the more education you have the less likely you are to be unemployed today. There is a nice stair-step correlation. 

The BLUE bar represents "Long Term Unemployment" which is defined as being without a job for one year or longer.  If you take that total unemployed for over a year and divide it into the number of long term unemployed in each of the education categories you find that long term unemployment does not discriminate by education level.  It is pretty democratic!

Source: Pew Center via Business Insider

One lesson I see here is that while education has many residual benefits, a major one is that if you lose your job you are more likely to find one within a year. 

However, if you don't, you are not much better off than a High School graduate.  Yikes!