Sunday, May 13, 2012

The True Unemployment Rate

The U-6 unemployment rate is the true unemployment rate we have in the United States.  So, what is the U-6 unemployment rate?

The U6 unemployment rate counts not only people without work seeking full-time employment (the more familiar U-3 rate), but also counts "marginally attached workers and those working part-time for economic reasons." Note that some of these part-time workers counted as employed by U-3 could be working as little as an hour a week. And the "marginally attached workers" include those who have gotten discouraged and stopped looking, but still want to work. The age considered for this calculation is 16 years and over 
http://portalseven.com/employment/unemployment_rate_u6.jsp
So, when Obama and others say we have a 8.1% unemployment rate and things are looking up, they are handing you a line of BS.  Yes, the U-6 unemployment rate was  as high as 16% and now is down to 14.5%, that still sucks and this does not even include those who have stopped looking for work.  I would also suspect the rate would even a few points higher as more people have gone on disability instead of going to work.
So, we are still in deep dodo.

No comments:

Post a Comment