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It's time to end the obama election unemployment rate shell game
The widely publicized unemployment rate, eagerly awaited each month by pundits and policy wonks, has become little more than a shell game in which officials keep the public guessing about the real state of the economy.
Clearly, the unemployment rate is not telling the full story.
The labor force participation rate – which has fallen significantly, from 66.1 percent in 2008 to 63.5 percent today – tells us far more. That’s because it includes everybody of working age, even those who have left the work force. The unemployment rate excludes such individuals, presenting a rosier picture than exists.
The most commonly used unemployment measure, known as U-3, is the percentage of the workforce that is unemployed and actively seeking work. Using this measure, when people drop out of the labor force they statistically disappear. The U-3 unemployment rate now hovers just over 8 percent. If those who have given up and have stopped looking for work were included, the unemployment rate would exceed 11 percent. Even the broadest measure of unemployment, U-6, fails to include the long-term unemployed who have been out of the job market for a year or more.
It's time to end the obama election unemployment rate shell game
The widely publicized unemployment rate, eagerly awaited each month by pundits and policy wonks, has become little more than a shell game in which officials keep the public guessing about the real state of the economy.
Clearly, the unemployment rate is not telling the full story.
The labor force participation rate – which has fallen significantly, from 66.1 percent in 2008 to 63.5 percent today – tells us far more. That’s because it includes everybody of working age, even those who have left the work force. The unemployment rate excludes such individuals, presenting a rosier picture than exists.
The most commonly used unemployment measure, known as U-3, is the percentage of the workforce that is unemployed and actively seeking work. Using this measure, when people drop out of the labor force they statistically disappear. The U-3 unemployment rate now hovers just over 8 percent. If those who have given up and have stopped looking for work were included, the unemployment rate would exceed 11 percent. Even the broadest measure of unemployment, U-6, fails to include the long-term unemployed who have been out of the job market for a year or more.
hog, you're pizzing in the wind. 0bama supporters will believe anything. When you add that fact to the fact that they don't have the vaguest idea how to add 2+2 and come up with 4, the real unemployment numbers, no matter how much they're tweeked, will simply confuse them. It's the single digit IQ syndrome.
Oh, please it is the same source as all the UE data that came out today - the monthly household survey. Are you saying the only thing you looked at is Fox News slant on it?
Oh, please it is the same source as all the UE data that came out today - the monthly household survey. Are you saying the only thing you looked at is Fox News slant on it?
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