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I'm in a discussion about unemployment, and my "opponent" just declared that U3 Unemployment calculation has been the official measurement of unemployment for every president. Obviously, that's ridiculously wrong. But I was looking for a data point to help me drive that fact home, and I can't seem to find anything specific on when the US government began separating unemployment calculation into six categories, U1-U6, and specifically when the U3/U6 categories were established and first used. Do any of you have any information on this, and can you provide a source link? Thank you.

California’s unemployment rate still lags the national unemployment rate of 4.9 percent. More than 1 million people remained unemployed. California has gained 2.3 million jobs since the economic recovery began in 2010. The unemployment rate was 6.1 percent last July. Closer to home, numbers were better in Los Angeles County, where the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.8 percent in July, down from a revised 4.9 percent in June. In Orange County, the unemployment rate was up slightly at 4.6 percent from 4.4 percent in June.

New Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that there were 665,000 jobs lost in January, a blunt finding that confuses the heralded report that 151,000 jobs were created in January in non-farm payrolls. But who got them? The very same BLS finds that jobs to "native born" and immigrant workers dropped. Ditto for men and women. It is possible that many employees took on a second job, according to analysts. But a difference of 816,000 is too big, one said. Same for the differences in the two surveys the BLS uses to gauge jobs, household data from the Current Population Survey,...

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, the unemployment rate, what is the latest reported unemployment, 5.5%, is that what it is, 5.3, 5.6? It's in that neighborhood, right? I don't know what the exact number is. Not that this matters to anything anymore. I mean, the truth is increasingly irrelevant. The truth is increasingly meaningless. In fact, there isn't any truth in way too much of the country. There is certainly no objective truth. Anyway, I have had, as you know if you listen regularly, I've had a lot of doubt about the accuracy of an unemployment rate of 5.5% when, at...

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their monthly jobs report. Now for the BLS Boogie. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 155,000 workers last month following a revised 161,000 advance in November that was greater than initially estimated. The unemployment rate printed at 7.8% which is up from 7.7% in November but the same as the UPWARDLY REVISED print of 7.8%. U6 partial unemployment printed at 14.4%. Labor force participation remained at 63.6%. And the civilian employment to population ratio fell to 58.6, still stuck are 1983 levels. That’s a lot of people for the 58.6% to support! The number of...

HOUSEHOLD DATA Table A-15. Alternative measures of labor underutilization [Percent] Measure Not seasonally adjusted Seasonally adjusted Sept.2011 Aug.2012 Sept.2012 Sept.2011 May2012 June2012 July2012 Aug.2012 Sept.2012 U-1 Persons unemployed 15 weeks or longer, as a percent of the civilian labor force 5.2 4.3 4.2 5.3 4.6 4.6 4.5 4.4 4.3 U-2 Job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs, as a percent of the civilian labor force 5.0 4.4 4.0 5.2 4.5 4.6 4.6 4.5 4.2 U-3 Total unemployed, as a percent of the civilian labor force (official unemployment rate) 8.8 8.2 7.6 9.0 8.2 8.2 8.3 8.1 7.8 U-4 Total...

When did the BLS start reporting Unemployment using the U3 Tables? Was there a time when Unemployment was reported as just people out of work? (More like the U6 tables) I need to know for some stuff I am writing but I can't seem to find anything credible when I Google such. Thanks in advance for your consideration.

Obama and Biden must be singing “Summertime Blues” as U6 Unemployment rose to 14.9% from 14.8% in June. The traditional measure of unemployment remained stuck at 8.2%. Nonfarm payrolls (NFP) rose less than expected at only 80,000 jobs. The expectation was for 100,000 jobs. It Gets Worse Since the end of June 2010, how have we done? 28.1 millions Americans have gone on disability while `12.75 million Americans have dropped off on unemployment rolls. That is a net INCREASE of 237,000. Think this is bad? Wait until the 20+ Obamacare taxes kicks in and the Bush tax cuts expire.

Michael Gaynor, 25, completed his bachelor’s degree and certification to teach elementary and high-school physical education in May 2009, then set out during a recession to find that dream job. Over the next two years, the quest would take him from substitute teaching and respite care work in Iowa, back to his parents’ home in Skokie; to Florida, where he waited tables, then back to Skokie; to Colorado as a substitute teacher, coach and camp counselor, then, back to Skokie. “My moves back home were always transitional. They allowed me to save up money, not having to pay rent and...

Just announced on FoxNews. Discouraged workers

Some refreshing words from the Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner this morning on Meet the Press. He had this to say: (15:20 into this clip) Note: An 8 second clip of Tim's words: Link We don’t have the ability (because of the overhang in housing and the problems in the financial sector) to engineer artificially a stronger recovery. Imagine that! Geithner acknowledges what I (and many others) have felt all along. The structural issues in the economy trump the government’s ability to engineer a recovery. The Fed has taken extraordinary measures on the monetary front. Since 2009 we have had $1.2...

The U.S. jobless rate was flat at 9.6% in September, but the government’s broader measure of unemployment rose even more to 17.1%, the highest rate since April and down just slightly from the October 2009 high of 17.4%. The comprehensive gauge of labor underutilization, known as the “U-6″ for its data classification by the Labor Department, accounts for people who have stopped looking for work or who can’t find full-time jobs. The key to the rise in the broader unemployment rate was due to a 612,000 jump in the number of people employed part time but who would prefer full-time...

U.S. nonfarm payrolls expanded by a seasonally adjusted 431,000 in May, but virtually all the new jobs were temporary jobs at the U.S. Census, leaving private-sector hiring very weak in May, the Labor Department reported Friday. Excluding 411,000 temporary Census workers, payrolls rose by 20,000 in May.(continued)

Friday's unemployment report offered no comfort to economists, government officials and the 27.4 million Americans now unable to find full-time employment. In recent months unemployment numbers have produced growing economic concerns over the likelihood of an economic recovery that fails to produce job growth; and this month's unemployment report, coupled with recent GDP estimates point support those concerns. Despite billions of dollars in stimulus spending that continues to flow out of Washington, the Department of Labor report pointed to job loss numbers that have failed to improve amid the spending. The Department of Labor reported a rise in the adjusted...

Real Unemployment Rate Hits 16.8% Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/04/2009 08:22 -0500 As markets digest the worse, yet somehow better, than expected 9.7% unemployment, the real state of the labor market is much worse, as indicated by the U-6 number, which has hit a recent record of 16.8% on a seasonally adjusted basis. As a reminder, the "U-6 represents total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers." In other words, in reality the U.S. labor market is likely about...

U6' Unemployment -- The People Who Will Be Hurt Most If Pelosi & Reid Kill E-Verify Parts Of DHS Spending Bill "U6." No, it isn't a new version of an Irish rock group. It is the more complete look at the victims of unemployment. These are the people who would most benefit from the expanded use of E-Verify to open up jobs held by illegal aliens. Let's make sure that Pelosi, Reid and Obama look at the 25 million American victims before they choose to once again favor illegal aliens for U.S. jobs. The unemployment figures you usually hear are...

Despite the obvious increase in job losses, official government estimates may be drastically understating the true unemployment rate. True Unemployment Rate May Be Twice The Government Numbers. The official unemployment rate may also be dramatically inaccurate based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics method of calculation. If the government was still calculating the unemployment rate using the same criteria and methods that had last been used during the Clinton administration, the “official” unemployment rate today would be closer to 18%.

The release of US Durable Goods Orders and Initial/Continuing Jobless Claims ...proved to be highly disappointing today, leading the US dollar to initially spike higher on demand for safe-haven assets. Taking a look at the data, Durable Goods Orders failed to improve for the sixth straight month as they fell more than expected at a rate of 5.2 percent during January. Transportation led the decline in the overall index, contracting a whopping 13.5 percent, but even excluding this component orders were down 2.5 percent. Furthermore, by looking at the results from a longer-term perspective, conditions appear incredibly bleak as Durable...

The Labor DepartmentÂ’s official unemployment rate hit 7.6% in January, and its jump from 4.9% a year earlier marks the largest annual increase in the unemployment rate since 1975. But the governmentÂ’s broader measure of unemployment hit a more stunning level: 13.9%, up from 13.5% in December. The figure, which largely accounts for people who have stopped looking for work or canÂ’t find full-time jobs, is the highest since the Labor Department started the data series in 1994. How does the government calculate two unemployment rates? The widely followed figure is based on people who do not have a job,...