Trump mulls changing official unemployment rate

washingtonexaminer.com ^ | 1/29/17 | Sean Higgins

[ForYourChildren]

From here, "Contrasts and Comparisons Between the Great Depression and Now" http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/asha-bangalore/2011/08/23/contrasts-comparisons-between-great-depression-and-now

They have the following:

Source: Labor Force, Employment, and Unemployment 1929-39, Estimating Methods, Monthly Labor Review, July 1948

Notice the "Source" in the first graph, which a typical Great Depression type graph. It says, "Estimating Methods." This is what has always been done to get the Great Depression unemployment numbers.

The second graph, does not say that it uses the same "Estimating Methods." But it is using some sort of "Broad Measure of Unemployment," not a U-3 or U-6 type measure. In the article, it does say the "Broad Measure of Unemployment" (the blue line) includes "folks who are working part-time but want full-time jobs and those marginally attached to the labor force." So this is an attempt to gain apples to apples comparison.

[ForYourChildren]

Shadowstats tries to make the best apples to apples comparison. http://www.alt-market.com/articles/2711-this-chart-shows-just-how-bad-unemployment-is-today-compared-to-the-great-depression

Here is their unemployment graph using a Broad Measure with estimating methods as close as possible to the Great Depression estimating methods.

The blue line unemployment rate for the last 8 years is MUCH worse that the great depression.

[DoodleDawg]

The labor force has shrunk that much since Obama and the RATs destroyed the economy. These are able bodied people who stopped looking for work.

The 95 million are far more than that.

[Eisenhower Republican]

The percentage of working-age men actually employed is the lowest since the great depression.

That’s apples-to-apples. It’s really that bad out there, and it’s been almost entirely ignored by the press and the national accounting establishment. Purposely, I believe.