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U6 would be a lot higher if we counted all the people who have completely dropped
out of the workforce in total despair. I think it would be about 25 percent if the count was not
always being manipulated.
Also we can't forget that even those who are supposedly employed "full time" are only working 34 hours per week which means no new hiring will be needed until their hours have increased
significantly. 34 hours is actually only 85 percent of a full time job and that should be factored into the numbers.
The problem for the government is the short duration of the census jobs. When they all go away in a few months we will head into the election season with more job losses and the 5 million long term unemployed will be averaging almost 52 weeks out of work by then.
RayAmerica
@
2010 Apr 2, 9:17am
One employment report will not tell the entire picture, but this is a finally a start and a sure sign the economy is on the path to recovery, albeit it is gonna be a slow uncertain grind.
Pardon me for being confused by your comment. You claim these unemployment numbers are a "sure sign the economy is on the path to recovery" and then say it will be a "slow undertain grind." Which is it? Sure thing or uncertain?
RayAmerica
@
2010 Apr 2, 9:45am
You guys get too techinical with every word.
That's what the lefty Supreme Court Justices say to the conservatives when interpreting the Constitution.
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Obama took credit today for an "improvement in the U-3 unemployment numbers. He failed to mention that a whopping 50,000 "new jobs" in the government's figures are temp jobs for the Census. Far more telling is the U-6 unemployment rate, a rate the Obama administration never even mentions. This is looking more and more like we've become Oceania and Obama is speaking from the Ministry of Truth. It won't be long before we begin to see signs like War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength.
Broader U-6 Unemployment Rate Rises to 16.9%
Posted Apr 2nd 2010 4:30PM by Connie Madon
The Labor Department issued its monthly unemployment for March. The numbers were upbeat. The unemployment rate held steady at 9.7% and 162,000 new jobs were created. This is the official number and is labeled the U-3 unemployment report. The U-3 category includes people who are without jobs and who are available for work. Wonderful isn't it? Maybe not.
Let's dig a bit deeper into the darker side of the unemployment numbers. What is rarely published are the unemployment numbers under the category labeled U-6. Most people have never heard of the U-6 category because it is rarely cited in headline news.
What is U-6? This category includes everyone in the official rate plus "marginally attached workers" -- those who are neither working nor looking for work, but say they want a job and have looked for work recently. It also includes part time workers who took part time work because they couldn't find full time jobs.
The U-6 data may shock you. It shows that unemployment actually rose 0.1% to 16.9% in March. The highest number was 17.4% in October.
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