Has the number of umemployed been manipulated?

[reaganator]

The recent jobs report has shown the unemployment rate has dropped to 8.9%, what is the formula used for determining this rate?

Is it possible for the current Administration to elinimate certain sectors of the unemployed to achieve this desired result? Those who were collecting unemployment benefits but are now being paid to go to school or are being paid to remain poor. etc.

When the welfare rolls increase does this decrease the unemployment rolls?

Is it possible for the Administration to stretch to increase the actual number count of the American work force to achieve a lower unemployment rate? Count those who previosly were not counted.

I suspect there will be adjusted job numbers to come.

I admit great ignorance comcerning this matter and would appreciate Freepers help in learning more about this.

[Twinkie]

. . . . and they’ll just riot and recall those nasty Tea Party Republicans they elected in the last election and install the Democrats in their RIGHTFUL place of rulership like their BIRTHRIGHT is meant by nature to be.

[BobL]

True - and with a dollar crash, I expect $25 per gallon. That would hurt.

On the bright side...no more traffic jams.

[McGruff]

Whattya live under a rock?

[null and void]

Be still my heart!

[SampleMan]

Unemployed is defined as people out of work who have actively looked for work within the last four weeks.

Not really though, as the reporting of those looking for work is only tracked via unemployment insurance collection.

Thus, anyone looking for work that is not collecting unemployment would never be counted in this number. Thus, only people who lost a job and are still getting unemployment payments are counted. People entering the workforce for the first time, or who are not getting payments are not counted. As tracked by the government, this number will eventually reduce itself to zero, even if no one ever finds a job.

The fact that the official unemployment number has stayed so constant, actually means that real unemployment has been increasing steadily.

[Cyclone59]

Du-ah! Is a frogs ass water-tight? Of course they cook the books on unemployment, just as they have with inflation. And the media and the REPUBLICANS let them get away with it. The left continues to hand the right ammo, but the right never uses it - I truely don’t understand.

[freekitty]

Yes and not for the better. The rate is probably twice what they say it is.

[trebb]

Yes - actual full unemployment is about 10% and when you add in the underemployed it is about 20%. Another dirty secret is that a number of jobs have actually disappeared and that is being skewed to make the numbers look lower.

Mission just about accomplished - a few more blows and it will be time to flush.

[Secret Agent Man]

They will adjust them until unemployment appears to be under 8%. That’s all they care about, because for re-election they need the ‘magic number’ to be under 8%. No sitting president except FDR won re-election with unemployment higher than 8%.

So they’ll just revise it until it gets below, the press will orgasmically report on how the number keeps going down, how O-hole is so great and life is wonderful and it’s springtime in Russia (err the USSA) and they sold another Volt today to someone....

[cashless]

Keep in mind these are the same people that manipulate the CPI which says there is no inflation so all you retired has beens can go suck an egg, providing you have enough money after Obamalamadingdong raises your energy costs to necessarily high levels (a paraphrase of his words).

[cashless]

Shadowstats.com for today's numbers expressed the way they use to be reported before truth became an option.

[cashless]

Keep in mind these are the same people that manipulate the CPI which says there is no inflation so all you retired has beens can go suck an egg, providing you have enough money after Obamalamadingdong raises your energy costs to necessarily high levels (a paraphrase of his words).

[Twinkie]

Yeah, and so far they haven’t quite figured out how to finagle it out of the oil dictator’s hands. . or could this be part of why Code Pink went to Egypt . . to “community organize” the demonstrations?

Oh, and the high gasoline prices accomplish exactly what Obama wants - OUR “behavior” being managed and the advancement of “green” energy. - Never mind the “unintended consequences”, such as many of the world’s people dying from starvation because this bunch decided it’d be a good idea to use CORN for fuel rather than food. Still, any agencies the federal government establishes have something akin to “eternal life”.

And the little tin can electric cars? More of that dratted “population” will be thinned out in automobile accidents. It’s a win-win situation for the Marxists.

[NonValueAdded]

Bear is to Catholic as Pope is to Woods

[Koracan]

The unemployed, the underemployed, THE UNDERPAID

...e.g. City and County of San Francisco

Fiscal Year 2009 upper Income Limits public Housing, City and County of San Francisco:
~ 65k for Single
~ 80K for family of 3

60% of residents DO qualify for low income Public Housing
that means only 40% have some kind of traditional american style comfortable living with some spare change left when the next Paycheck comes in.
100k [gross] is needed for a single person living in a 1 Bdrm Aprtmnt to have a carefree live.

The city of San Francisco contains 13.6 percent of the Bay Area’s households, but only 12.3 percent of the households with annual incomes of more than $100,000.

[Jack Hammer]

Of course.