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Barron's picks up Unemployment Rate: Worse than it Appears

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Yesterday's comments, Unemployment Rate: Worse than it Appears, was picked up by Barron's.

I have to admit that I like their title, "The Incredible Shrinking Labor Pool," much better than my own pedstrian effort (much catchier than mine).

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Source:
The Incredible Shrinking Labor Pool
MARKET WATCH TODAY
Barron's TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2005 12:00 p.m. EST   
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB110787593318748922.html

Tuesday, February 08, 2005 | 01:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
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Comments

The unemployment rate can not be compared to the past when full time 40 hour a week jobs were primarily the jobs counted. The unemployment insurance offices were used to track the data. Today, only about 40% of all workers nationwide qualify for unemployment insurance. The majority do not make enough money or spend enough time on any one job to qualify. In addition today , even someone making only a hundred dollars a month is considered employed. This would be laughable when real unemployment data was collected.

We now have temporary help offices throughout our cities. Other casual labor hiring places have workers making less than minimum wages after all is taken out.
If a person is working in a family business or on a family farm while looking for a job and making no money, they are still considered employed.

Even the Bureau of Labor Statistics admits that at least 4 million workers are missing in action and are not part of any reporting. It is as if they do not exist. The number most likely is much higher than this.
All shoudd try to figure out the real unemployment rates. Reportedly there are only about 88 million full time workers in the USA. By a rough count, this means there is about 100 million workers in part time work or in limbo. What are the actual numbers? The USA has gone through the most massive dislocation of jobs in its history. Where did all these workers end up?

MIA's is not only a military term. We need to find out how many workers are missing in action from any kind of real reporting and how the reporting today differs with the past.

The term underemployment has lost it way too. It was used continously just a few years ago but it is seldom use in any reporting relating to unemployment rates.

Also, if a person has three part-time jobs, how is this counted. Is it counted as three jobs equals three workers or is it counted as one person with three jobs.

It is amazing that trained economists accept the reporting and pass it on as a real thing. We need a clarification of what we see happening on the streets.

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Posted by: Tapart News Editor | Oct 19, 2005 11:04:53 PM