Thread: Official unemployment rate? 9.4 percent. Total rate? 16.7 percent

Finally the big payoff bill is working

Originally Posted by Prince

Official unemployment rate? 9.4 percent. Total rate? 16.7 percent



When the government counts 'marginally attached' and 'underutilized' workers, America's unemployment rate nearly doubles.

Today’s Employment Situation report showed that in December “total unemployment” including all marginally attached workers declined to 16.7% while the traditionally reported unemployment rate declined to 9.4%.

The traditional unemployment rate is calculated from the monthly household survey results using a fairly explicit definition of “unemployed” (essentially unemployed and currently looking for full time employment) leaving many workers to be considered effectively “on the margin” either employed in part time work when full time is preferred or simply unemployed and no longer looking for work.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics considers “marginally attached” workers (including discouraged workers) and persons who have settled for part time employment to be “underutilized” labor.

The broadest view of unemployment would include both traditionally unemployed workers and all other underutilized workers.

To calculate the “total” rate of unemployment we would simply use this larger group rather than the smaller and more restrictive “unemployed” group used in the traditional unemployment rate calculation.

You're all fired!

The OP is the difference between the U3 and U7 unemployment rate.

The gov and mainstream media always publish and report the U3 rate, which calculates the unemployment rate to be the lowest.

If you add the under-employed folks working part-time but want full time and the people who have given up looking, the rate goes to the higher (U7) rate.

There are rates of U3, U4, U5, U6, U7.

True, the real rate, or the rate I consider to be accurate, is the higher rate. I'd say around 15-17%.

I'd also include people qualified to do certain skilled jobs, that are stocking shelves at wal-mart for a long period.

Originally Posted by Dark Geared God

Finally the big payoff bill is working

If you are talking about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act it is working. it helps when you actually look at the data

Chart 2. Nonfarm payroll employment over-the-month
change, seasonally adjusted, December 2008 –
December 2010

Employment Situation Summary

Employment Situation Summary
Transmission of material in this release is embargoed SDL-11-0002
until 8:30 a.m. (EST) Friday, January 7, 2011

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf


Organizing for America | BarackObama.com | Road to Recovery

The US never recovered from the 2001 recession in terms of jobs and has been losing jobs since the implementation of GATT, NAFTA and accelerated immigration, starting in the early 1990′s. The reality is a jobs shortage. Mass poverty awaits the US population because of the lack of jobs and decent employment. Poof is 49 million Americans (17 % of US population)in poverty and rising. Many with experience and/or education. Another 15 million college degrees await to enter the stagnant workforce. 5 million a year from 10,000 colleges and universities, 2007-2010. Unemployment statistics does not begin to tell the whole story.

Poverty Rates Jumps to 14% in 2009
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_719057.html

Table 7.
Income Deficit or Surplus of Families and Unrelated Individuals by Poverty Status: 2009
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/pover...009/table7.pdf

Income, Poverty and Health Insurance in the United States: 2009 - Highlights
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/pover...ighlights.html


Costly Trade With China: Millions of U.S. jobs displaced with net job loss in every state
http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/bp188/

RISING CHINA TRADE DEFICIT
WILL COST ONE-HALF MILLION
U.S. JOBS IN 2010
http://www.epi.org/page/-/pdf/ib283.pdf

Anyone know of any manufacturing facilities in the US that hire 300K people at once?

Foxconn Factory Planned in China
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_629330.html

China Makes, The World Takes
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/...ld-takes/5987/

It sure is a good thing that those Bush Tax Cuts for the wealthy created jobs and spured R&D..lol

A Lost Decade for Jobs
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thre..._decade_f.html

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"About a quarter of the 8.4 million jobs eliminated since the recession began won't be coming back and will ultimately need to be replaced by other types of work in growing industries, according to economists in the latest Wall Street Journal forecasting survey."

Economists Expect Shifting Work Force
Increased Automation and Relocations Overseas Means a New Employment Mix Will Take Hold When Hiring Resumes
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...NewsCollection

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"The highest group, with household incomes of $150,000 or more, had an unemployment rate during that quarter of 3.2 percent. The next highest, with incomes of $100,000 to 149,999, had an unemployment rate of 4 percent.

Contrast those figures with the unemployment rate of the lowest group, which had annual household incomes of $12,499 or less. The unemployment rate of that group during the fourth quarter of last year was a staggering 30.8 percent. That's more than five points higher than the overall jobless rate at the height of the Depression."

'No Labor Market Recession for America's Affluent,' Low Wage Workers Hit Hardest
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_456797.html

* and here is the kick in the nuts while big company's are laying people off productivity has actually increased during the recession and those big company's that have a certain political party in their back pocket and new Speaker of the House are flush with cash.

Jobless Suffer as Corporate Cash Hits $1.18 Trillion (Update1)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...8c9z9Bms&pos=6

"Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- A majority of companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index increased cash to a combined $1.18 trillion while simultaneously reducing spending, keeping a jobs recovery on hold. "


Productivity and Costs, Third Quarter 2010, Revised
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/prod2.nr0.htm