US Unemployment is actually a bit more than 22% according to the Shadow Statistic

Originally posted by BackFire
I'm not terribly well versed when it comes to employment numbers so excuse me if I'm incorrect, but don't the official numbers not really take into account under employment? Meaning if someone has a job working 2 hours a week for minimum wage they are considered employed to the same degree as someone working full time with benefits? If so that's obviously a silly statistic to base much on and shouldn't really have much worth.

From what I understand about the recession, we lost a lot of good paying jobs, and the ones that came in and replaced those jobs were low wage jobs. So a lot of people who lost their good jobs had to take shittier jobs. So while those people are still "employed" it's not really at the numbers we should be aiming for.

So anyways, yeah the official employment numbers from what I understand do seem to be fairly misleading if the things I said are true.

It's worse then that. They counted stints on certain temperary jobs as seperate jobs flooding the market.

So you get let go and rehired every four months for a year, then rehired, that's three jobs to the tally for the year..

A job I had with the post office use to do that, to skirt around union labor laws. They can't hire someone for more then a few months, so you're cut loose for two weeks, then let back on. Rinse-repeat.

Originally posted by cdtm
It's worse then that. They counted stints on certain temperary jobs as seperate jobs flooding the market.

So you get let go and rehired every four months for a year, then rehired, that's three jobs to the tally for the year..

Is Trump doing this in his "press releases" and statements? Obama did this and some people correctly pointed out how misleading and dishonest Obama was for saying he's added jobs.

Originally posted by cdtm
A job I had with the post office use to do that, to skirt around union labor laws. They can't hire someone for more then a few months, so you're cut loose for two weeks, then let back on. Rinse-repeat.

Oh boy. That should get a fine.

Originally posted by dadudemon
people who gave up looking because they couldn't find jobs.

Isn't that what the U-6 does?

Originally posted by ESB -1138
Isn't that what the U-6 does?

Partially. But they stop tracking them after a certain period of time. They call these "discourged" and this is what the U5 adds. The U6 adds on the underemployed (combines all "these).

"I need a job but cannot get one" counts and I believe only for 6-12 months (I don't remember). But if you report that you need a job and are looking but have no been employed for...say..2 years, you are not counted.

A very telling sign of the health of the economy is labor force participation rates. When people tell me the economy has healed, we just have to take a look at labor force participation rates and median household incomes (adjusted for inflation) to see we have still not recovered from the .com bubble bust.

Take a look at labor force participation rates:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CIVPART

Does it look like we've healed from the Great Recession? What about median household income?

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N

Says we are up.

If fewer people are working, how is it possible that income has gone up? That clearly indicates that income is more concentrated to fewer wage earners.

What I'd like to see is "True Mean Income - Individual" over time. That's a stat that would be telling. And it needs to include all working-age adults. All of them.