I’ve seen figures that put the real unemployment rate at 30-40%.
In the faculty lounge version when no one is working but no one is looking for work there is NO unemployment. These morons are a cancer on America.
All depends on the meaning of word “UNemployment”....BJC
Yes, the number is a joke. They count only those receiving unemployment and those actively seeking jobs by registering with state agencies. On top of that they superimpose birth/death data to further massage the number.
The only correct number can be found by looking at how many are paying social security tax, because every single soul who has a job or a business must pay that tax. But that would be too much transparency and too much embarrassment so the gov’t won’t tell us.
At this point what difference does it make? I have been told repeatedly by some members of this forum that the only reason people are unemployed is because they are lazy leech's who would rather sit home sucking off the government. I however am charitable about those forum members and just consider them ignorant with their broad brush strokes and generalities.
What we are going through is worse than the Great Depression. As counter productive as was the New Deal, at least the guvmint thought employment was better than unemployment.
These days we have at least the percent unemployed as at the height of the Great Depression. We also have many more legions underemployed. Plus our supposed natural born leaders are saying that's a good thing, and our unparalleled free press gives them cover.
Policies and laws are designed to make it worse. A depression is a recession until the government fixes it.