Real Unemployment

Typically cited unemployment rates failt to take into account (1.) discouraged workers who are not longer actively seeking jobs and (2.) the underemployed who may work a few hours a week and are thus counted as employed.

If these people are added to the count the number of people unemployed is about one in six (15.6%) according to the U.S. departments of labors March figure.

But it is really even worse than that (quoting from this article at MSM Money):


Even the Department of Labor's expanded unemployment measure doesn't fully capture how difficult the job market is for American workers. It doesn't include self-employed workers whose incomes have shriveled. It doesn't look at former full-time staff employees who have accepted short-term contracts, without benefits, and at a fraction of their former salaries. And it doesn't count the many would-be workers who are going back to school, taking on more debt, in hopes that an advanced degree will improve their chances of landing a job.

Here's another way to look at the unemployment figures: More than 5 million people have lost their jobs since the start of the recession in December 2007. And more than 13 million people are unemployed. That's the highest number the U.S. has seen since it began tracking unemployment after World War II. For every job out there, more than four people are competing for it, says Boushey.


The article goes on to point out that lawyers are now taking paralegal jobs and Ivy League professionals are taking contract jobs.  This blog has a link to an interview with a former CEO who is now delivering pizza.  

And it is hard to see how things will get better anytime soon.  To put it simply; the United States economy is now (1.) predicated on consumer spending rather than manufacturing and (2.) dependent on foreigners buying up our fiat confetti.  As people loose jobs, consumer spending dries up, lending contracts and this results in a negative feedback loop as more and more jobs are shed. Combine this with the dollar becoming increasingly unattractive due to its recent and continuing dilution and the IMF development an alternate world currency...  You do the math.