Unemployment is staying high because as people are retiring or companies lose employees naturally through attrition, they aren't hiring new people to take their place.
Unemployment is high because many Americans are too proud to work shitty jobs to take care of themselves, and instead would prefer to watch Oprah while being on the government's tit.
Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary
There's like 3.6 million jobs openings in the US. It's just people don't want to work at Walmart, or as a phone rep, or whatever.