Jonathan Tasini: Unemployment Is 15 Percent

[marmar]

from the Working Life blog:



Unemployment Is 15 Percent
by Jonathan Tasini

Friday 03 of April, 2009


When you think about having a job, the logical person would consider that a situation where you were making enough money to pay your bills, and maybe save a bit. Anything less is not real employment. And by that measure, our unemployment figure is more than 15 percent.

So, each month, the media does a pathetic job in reporting unemployment figures--and today is no different. The New York Times:

The American economy shed another 663,000 jobs in March, the government reported Friday, bringing the toll of job losses during the recession to more than 5 million.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the national unemployment rate climbed to 8.5 percent from 8.1 percent in February, its highest levels in a quarter-century, as employers raced to cut their payroll costs. It was the 15th consecutive month of job losses.

How does the lazy-ass reporter arrive at that figure? Well, he simply rewrites the first paragraph of the Department of Labor's press release:

Nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline sharply in March (-663,000), and the unemployment rate rose from 8.1 to 8.5 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Since the recession began in December 2007, 5.1 million jobs have been lost, with almost two-thirds (3.3 million) of the decrease occurring in the last 5 months. In March, job losses were large and widespread across the major industry sectors.

.............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.workinglife.org/blogs/view_post.php?content_id=12983

[stray cat]

1. Only if your bills consist of a small basic apartment and basic food and clothing

[Canuckistanian]

2. Even the official unemployment figures are inaccurate

Since they don't count anyone who's exhausted unemployment insurance. What do they call them, "discouraged workers"?

[tritsofme]

5. Common misconception. The unemployment rate is calculated through the Current Population Survey

which is a scientific survey of 60,000 households.

If your unemployment benefits are exhausted, and you are still actively seeking work, you would be counted as unemployed under U3, the official unemployment rate.

[PSPS]

3. It's actually worse than that.

The media-quoted figure is the "U3" which defines out most of the unemployed to make the figure sound better. Even the BLS's own U6, which includes workers that have given up looking or work at menial part-time jobs because they want but can't find full-time employment, is almost 16%.

If you also add back in those defined out of the "discouraged worker" class by the Clinton administration, the rate is about 20%.

[pinqy]

6. Another misconception

Discouraged workers were not "defined out" under Clinton. It was under Johnson, in 1967. And they were defined out because it's too subjective and distorts the actual activity of the labor market.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

4. By that definition, it is higher than that

more like 20