Five years after the financial crisis, 4.1 million Americans have been out of work for longer than 27 weeks. Many of them face a looming deadline at the end of the year, when federal long-term unemployment benefits expire.

It’s a perilous situation for a group that has been uniquely affected by the slow economic recovery. While short-term unemployment is back to pre-recession rates, the job market for the long-term unemployed is still in crisis.