[iconoclast]

In the 70's and 80's economists declared that 5% unemployment was "full" employment, that the rate could not possibly go lower. Of course, Reaganomics proved them wrong.

Has it ever varied by more than +/- 2% since the depression?

[colorado tanker]

Oh, as I recall we were up near 9% in the mid-70's and near 10% in the early 80's, but generally your observation is true. Most of this is an effort by politicians on the outs to try to convince the most prosperous people in the world that things are so bad we have to throw the b#$tards' out - and put them in.