CHESSNOID

I just read this article from a week ago and surprised it was put out there without getting any bigger mention.  We know the economy is bad and the new Washington buzzwords “jobless recovery”  is to pretend it is not as bad as we see it everyday.  Even though the government didn’t count over 800,000 jobs lost in the past year, which would push our real unemployment rate up, the reports claimed the unemployment rate dropped to 9.7%.

Yahoo Finance:

The real numbers

Today’s headline numbers report was that the unemployment numbers, ’surprisingly fell to a five-month low of 9.7%,’ according to today’s government report.

In reality, unemployment spiked to an all-time high of 18%. Yes, 18%! This is the official number reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The BLS publishes different sets of data on a regular basis. The main focus tends to be on the U-3 unemployment rate (currently 9.7%, seasonally adjusted).

U-3 is the ‘official’ unemployment rate and illustrates total unemployed persons as a percentage of the civilian labor force. U-4 is another category that includes unemployed workers plus discouraged workers. A discouraged worker is someone who’s available to work but has stopped actively seeking for work.

U-5 unemployment includes the number of unemployed workers, plus discouraged workers, plus marginally attached workers. A marginally attached worker is someone who is able and willing to work but is not actively seeking work.

U-6 is as close to the real unemployment figure as government reporting gets. This number includes unemployed workers, plus discouraged workers, plus marginally attached workers, plus workers that are forced to work part-time because they are not able to find a full-time job. Put another way, it’s the most realistic picture of today’s job market as any.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of U-6 unemployed workers is 18% (not seasonally adjusted – 16.5%). This is the highest number of record.

Keep in mind that neither of the above categories encompasses another important element of the labor force; ‘unemployed self-employed’ workers. If you’re a handyman or contractor next door, or a small business owner who can’t secure work, you are not included! Adding these folks to the mix would put the real unemployment number above 20%!