[BobSimons]

The BLS also calculates five alternate measures of unemployment, U1 through U6, that measure different aspects of unemployment:

* U1: Percentage of labour force unemployed 15 weeks or longer.

* U2: Percentage of labour force who lost jobs or completed temporary work.

* U3: Official unemployment rate per the ILO definition occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively looked for work within the past four weeks.[2]

* U4: U3 + "discouraged workers", or those who have stopped looking for work because current economic conditions make them believe that no work is available for them.

* U5: U4 + other "marginally attached workers", or "loosely attached workers", or those who "would like" and are able to work, but have not looked for work recently.

* U6: U5 + Part time workers who want to work full time, but cannot due to economic reasons (underemployment). ------------ Ask the media to report the U4 -U6 numbers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment#cite_ref-71

[NC28203]

>>>Ask the media to report the U4 -U6 numbers

The broadest measure of un- and under-employment, called U-6, fell to 15.9 percent from 16.1 percent in January, and is down from 17.0 percent in November.

[BobSimons]

hey..

next time its cold outside say to a liberal global warming is a fraud and tell you? “weather is not the climate””.. well.. hey libs.. One event does not make a trend, especially when you fudge the numbers.

[libertarian27]

* U4: U3 + "discouraged workers", or those who have stopped looking for work because current economic conditions make them believe that no work is available for them.

This phraseology drives me crazy

They are assuming people just stop looking for work - and what? Sit at home and spin gold cloth for groceries and mortgage payments?

They are placing a psychological descriptive guess on a statistic...argh.