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I Just Learned the REAL Unemployment Rate, and It Sucks
PJ Media ^ | August 05, 2024 | Stephen Green

Posted on 08/05/2024 8:39:40 AM PDT by george76

There are lies, damned lies, and government statistics — and maybe none is more damnable than the official unemployment rate which is half the actual rate .. Worse, the number of Americans who are neither retired nor employed is more than four times higher than July's official rate of 4.3%.

...

July the percentage of Americans who are unemployed and looking for work — this is the number that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) should report each month — was 8.4%. The BLS reported a rosy 4.3% unemployment

...

One in four adult Americans is retired, which is nice for them. Fifteen percent say they're entrepreneurs (that can be anything from driving an Uber to .. and just under 30% are employed by a private company.

Nearly one in 10 work for the government at one level or another. Those workers are supported entirely by tax dollars without producing any material wealth. Every government employee involved in regulation makes it harder for the rest of us to do so.

If you've been keeping track of these numbers in your head, you might notice they don't add up to anything close to 100%. About three percent of adults surveyed answered "not sure" about their employment situation, the kind of answer that I assume involves smoking weed. The remaining 9.7% said they were unemployed but not looking — i.e., "Not in Workforce."

That means the percentage of Americans who could be working and perhaps would really like to be working but either can't find work or have given up finding work is 18.1%. That's more than four times the official unemployment rate.

...

45% of Americans who do work in the private sector are, in one way or another, supporting the 55% who don't, can't, or won't work.

(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bidenomics; bidensfault; bls; government; labor; lyinggovernment; r; statistics; unemployment; unemploymentrate
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1 posted on 08/05/2024 8:39:40 AM PDT by george76
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To: george76

it’s 50% where I live.


2 posted on 08/05/2024 8:46:53 AM PDT by xoxox
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To: george76

Like reporting on core inflation, which excludes food and energy (you know, two items that immdiately impact people).


3 posted on 08/05/2024 8:47:24 AM PDT by Tench_Coxe (The woke were surprised by the reaction to the Bud Light fiasco. May there be many more surprises)
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To: george76
Nearly one in 10 work for the government at one level or another. Those workers are supported entirely by tax dollars without producing any material wealth

This is why the government never cuts spending. ALL government spending at all levels IS a component of the official national GDP. If we cut spending, the GDP will contract signaling a recession. Regarding the massive number of government workers, it is a way to avoid calling them welfare recipients. Non-essential government jobs exist to provide a middle-class lifestyle to otherwise unemployable people.

4 posted on 08/05/2024 8:49:01 AM PDT by Sgt_Schultze (When your business model depends on slave labor, you're always going to need more slaves.)
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To: george76

Maybe that’s why to stock markets are crashing the last couple of days.


5 posted on 08/05/2024 8:51:17 AM PDT by antidemoncrat
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To: george76

Anyone with half a brain knows these numbers have been BS.


6 posted on 08/05/2024 8:51:33 AM PDT by cp124 (Bring back the Constitution.)
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To: george76

No Fedgov report is ever real in Fedgov especially when ‘rats are in power.


7 posted on 08/05/2024 8:53:59 AM PDT by shanover (...To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.-S.Adams)
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To: george76
One of the problems with any statistics is that they don’t tell the story behind the numbers.

In this particular case, the higher “unemployment” figures the author cites don’t distinguish between people who are truly unemployed and those who are UNEMPLOYABLE. I suspect the latter groups now numbers in the tens of millions of people in America today.

8 posted on 08/05/2024 9:05:57 AM PDT by Alberta's Child (“Ain't it funny how the night moves … when you just don't seem to have as much to lose.”)
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To: george76

Not to mention that a lot of people who do work are only employed part-time.


9 posted on 08/05/2024 9:09:56 AM PDT by fwdude
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To: george76

10 posted on 08/05/2024 9:12:02 AM PDT by rlmorel (J.D. Vance and The Legend of The MaMaw of The 19 Loaded Guns!)
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To: george76
45% of Americans who do work in the private sector are, in one way or another, supporting the 55% who don't, can't, or won't work

And so it has been for quite some time and it is unsustainable. Totally unsustainable. Something has to change or fail and the failing part is now.

11 posted on 08/05/2024 9:13:18 AM PDT by Sequoyah101 (More important than why there was nobody protecting the AGR roof, how did Crooks know that?)
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To: george76

Yep. Look at the total employment rate....ie the percentage of working age adults engaged in paid work. It used to be much higher than it is now but has been going down, down, down for years. The percentage who are “disabled” is vastly higher now than when we had an industrial economy and people worked in dangerous factories. The government learned this trick from the Europeans. “hey if we liberally grant disability benefits, then we don’t have to count them as unemployed.....”.


12 posted on 08/05/2024 9:31:14 AM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: rlmorel

Solzhenitsyn missed the main part of the situation in that quote.

We know they are lying,
they know they are lying,
they know we know they are lying,
we know they they know we know they are lying,
but they are still lying.
...Because they derive the greatest pleasure in knowing there isn't a damned thing we can do about it, we just have to take the abuse.

Abuse of power is a drug much more addictive than heroin!

13 posted on 08/05/2024 9:44:03 AM PDT by null and void (I identify as a conspiracy theorist. My personal pronouns are told/you/so.)
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To: george76

THE “UNEMPLOYMENT” numbers have been a total lie all the time a Dem is in office.


14 posted on 08/05/2024 9:52:46 AM PDT by ridesthemiles (not giving up on TRUMP---EVER)
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To: george76

those presenting it and reporting it are able to change it to thier liking, so its all a lie


15 posted on 08/05/2024 10:05:57 AM PDT by ronnie raygun
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To: george76

Harri’s bump is over.


16 posted on 08/05/2024 11:08:09 AM PDT by cowboyusa (YESHUA IS KING AMERICA, AND HE WILL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE H mediaIM!)
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To: antidemoncrat

“Maybe that’s why to stock markets are crashing the last couple of days.”
___________________________________________________________

Markets are dropping all over the world. It has nothing to do with internal politics in the US.


17 posted on 08/05/2024 11:37:00 AM PDT by Bob Wills is still the king (Just a Texas Playboy at heart!)
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To: george76

People living off welfare and not looking for work are NOT counted!!!! If they were the rate would be 25% and among blacks more like 75%.

The gover-media lies about everything.


18 posted on 08/05/2024 11:37:59 AM PDT by Diversity Is Our Weakness
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To: george76

Count yourself lucky. In the people’s republic of Alaska it is 4 out of 10. And the 10 is not people working, It is people who could be working. 330,000 considered in the workforce. 130,000 work for government. One half of one percent of land in private hands.


19 posted on 08/05/2024 11:55:19 AM PDT by FrozenAssets (You don't have to be crazy to live here, but it helps)
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To: george76

Is there an identifiable number of people who are unemployed but don’t need to work because they’re being supported by another person? Stay-at-home moms, etc?


20 posted on 08/05/2024 12:03:35 PM PDT by PLMerite ("They say that we were Cold Warriors. Yes, and a bloody good show, too." - Robert Conquest )
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