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I don't see any substantiation of the 9.1% jobless figure. Looks bogus to me. The unemployment number IS a survey. There is no estimate made using unemployment claims. The better statistics are the number of people employed, which can be found on www.bls.gov. Or my favorite , the participation rate. This is the percentage of the adult population calling themselves workers who are employed. That's at almost 67% now. This is one of the highest rates in the industrialized world and near it's all-time high. If you were an absolute monarch and had this historical data, you'd think you were doing a pretty good job.

The problem is people always can point to an unfortunate friend , relative or personal experience that runs counter to the steady rise in employment we've had over the last 30 years. A recovery of any magnitude and we'll have a hard time filling jobs again. Even now it's hard to get people to move 100 miles for a job. That's a problem no one talks about.

Of course, the median wages and purchaseing power have been falling for about 30 years, and that is why so many familes now have to have 2 parents that work now. The BLS U-6 alternative measure of unemployment for August was around 10%, so the 9.1% unemployment rate isint far off the mark.