"With 5% unemployment"
Are they still skewing that statistic by excluding people who have given up looking for work?
Since they've been doing this all along, I fail to see how it "skews" the data from one period to another. Since there is no way to actually compile data on this, it would inevitably be an estimate and highly prone to distortion in the political interest of whoever makes the estimate.
"With 5% unemployment"
Are they still skewing that statistic by excluding people who have given up looking for work?""
The statistic is consistent with the formula used 60 years ago.
If you change the formula, then comparisons cannot be formed against prior numbers.
If you want to include "the people who have given up looking for work", may I insist that you include ALL the welfare recipients of every kind into that number????
They aren't "looking for work" either......
I think they base that on the number of people getting unemployment vs those paying taxes...
When an independent contractor loses his business or client base...he is just as out of work as the next guy...but nobody ever hears about it...And he can't schlepp down to the unemployement office like joe burger flipper...
I myself have never ever filed for unemployement despite being out of 'official' work on numerous occasions...
You are "no longer part of the workforce" if your unemployment benefit runs out and you haven't found a new job. You disappear from the Earth as far as the unemployment numbers are concerned.