Labor Department's own figures show unemployment rate really 9.9%

[NNN0LHI]

HELP WANTED: Jobs Numbers Can Be Difficult to Figure


http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAMKX2X5TD.html

NEW YORK (AP) - At a time when the truth of the job market is difficult to ascertain, the government's monthly employment numbers sometimes do as much to confuse as to clarify. snip

The unemployment rate - 5.7 percent for March - is based on the government's monthly survey of households. But it includes only people who have made an effort to look for a job in the past four weeks.

It does not count those who have gone back to school because they can't find a job, or those who have taken a part-time job for less pay. It does not include people who, unable to find work, have set themselves up as home-based consultants. And it does not count people who have given up looking.

If all those people were included, the Labor Department's own figures show, the figure would be 9.9 percent. Economists say the true rate of people without any job is probably about 7 percent or 7.5 percent.

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[Laughing Mirror]

1. 9.9 sounds suspicious too

Sounds like a store that sells an article for $9.99 because it sounds lower than $10.00.

Charlie Rangel reminded us the other day of the unemployment rate of African-American men between the ages of 18-46 in New York City: 51%.

[rasputin1952]

2. Of course, this does not take into consideration...

the underemployed. Those that work at part-time jobs at greatly reduced rates w/o any benefits. Some of us have to do that just to put food on the table...:(