How do they calculate the unemployment percentage?

[kerryin2004]

They say it is at 5.4%, but when you are adding to the workforce each month, and the number still has not caught up with employment in 2000, how does it stay flat? We are still in a deficit of 1.7 million jobs since the shrub took office..Added are 125,000 job searchers each month.. How do they equate into the unemployment rate, or do they, and do they still remove persons who are no longer receiving unemployment compensation? I would be willing to bet that the if we calculated the number correctly then our economy is in worse shape then that of Europe..


Last question..Why is the dollar becoming increasingly weaker against the British pound and the euro? The pound is now double the dollar and the euro is 1.33 of a dollar.. Add to the fact that the Canadian dollar and the Australian dollar are getting close to equal with us..Never has the dollar been so weak in world markets.Is this a good thing?

[BlueEyedSon]

1. Incorrectly. The "real" percentage is probably 9%

[BlueEyedSon]

2. "The True Unemployment Rate - 10.9%"

http://www.depression2.tv/nwo/archives/000023.html

[seventhson]

3. Many unemployed are off the grid because they do not register at

the unemployment office. Their benefits have run out and they may be unemployed and looking for work but they have given up trying to get jobs via state agencies.

Unless one is registered and STAYS registered at the unemployment office, they are NOT counted at all.

tens of millions are NOT counted. Job losses also do not include "under the table" job losses where people are ineligible for benefits. This also amounts to tens of millions more unemployed than are counted.

The numbers are bogus.

I know little about the second question, but our economy is in a tailspin while Europe, with saner economic policies and protection for its workers, is at least pretty stable. And the huge reliance on gas guzzling here makes it many times worse. Little decent mass transit (unlike Europe) makes us sink faster as people cannot work or get to work or even look for work and thuis have no money to spend and businesses are going bust.

BUSH has been a disaster, but our energy policies and other economic policies have not helped for decades as we have never addressed the insanity of our total reliance on gas and oil and polluting radiation spewing nukes.

[Atman]

4. They make 'em up

Seriously. Almost.

When you've exhausted your bennies, which millions of people have, you're officially off the rolls, and no longer counted as "unemployed." The last figure I saw showed that because of this, they're basing our numbers as a percentage of people in the work force. BUT, if you're not looking any longer or are off the unemployment rolls, you're no longer part of the "work force." Last estimate was that we only have about 60% of the work force actually counted as a result. The 5.4% figure is a percentage of that 60%, NOT a percentage of 100%, as they'd like you to believe. Therefore, the actual unemployment rate is considerably higher than being reported.

ON EDIT: I am a good example...I can't find work. But I don't ask for gov assistance. I make a buck where I can and keep sending out stuff hoping for a bite. I am not counted as a government stat, because I don't ask the government for help. I would guess there are many more like me. And, I kinda blow a hole in the "liberals on the dole" myth they like to project. I've NEVER taken a food stamp or unemployment check in my life, despite have paid into the system for years. Fuck em.

[FloridaPat]

5. Notice they only use percentages. 5.4% unemployed in 2004 is not

the same number of unemployed as 5.4% was in 2000 or 1990 or 1980 etc. There are move people entering the workforce each month due to people graduating from college and high school. So even though the percentage stays the same, the number of unemployed keeps going up.

As far as I know they are removing the people "no longer looking". I think that is also the people removed from unemployment, because I have no idea how you can count the ones "no longer looking".

As for the dollar, when I started looking at it early last year it was worth $1.15 against the Euro. Now it's around 81 cents. That is because of the national debt and the fact we import a lot of stuff, having shipped the manufacturing plants out of the country. To remain stable, we must have an infusion of $.15 billion each DAY! We get that by having OIL traded in dollars. Also finding a lot of suckers still interested in investing into the US. We are in big trouble. Japan is helping to hold up the dollar. A lot of countries have billions of dollars in their banks to help hold it up. If everyone dumps dollars we're dead. If the oil producers go to the Euro because they're sick of loosing money, we're dead. But the economy is in good shape and getting better!