[itsPatAmerican]

But, you’ve got to remember that, as dire as unemployment was during the Great Depression, 75% of the people continued to be employed.

That's not true. When you say the unemployment rate is 25% is does not mean the employment rate is 75%. Only able bodied people of a certain age are considered. My guess is that in the Depression women were not counted as unemployed. I also don't know about back then, but now if you are unemployed for a certain amount of time (I think 18 months) you are considered unemployable and taken off the ranks of the unemployed. If we hit 25% unemployment it would be bad.

[RegulatorCountry]

The current games that are being played with unemployment statistics can’t be applied to the way unemployment was calculated then. Did the unemployment figures capture every single person who wanted work but could not find it? No, it didn’t, probably not even close. But, if you’re working from the assumption of 25% unemployment, then you’re looking at 75% employment, as employment was defined at that time. Our current unemployment numbers do not count the “discouraged,” as you noted, independent contractors or illegal aliens. The last two have served to mask just how much job loss there has been in the past year, imho.

[dalereed]

Years ago they didn’t count welfare as employed, today they do.

It used to be that 6% unemployment was full employment, now that they consider welfare cases as employed 6% is a whole lot more.