re: #259 subsailor68

Interesting question about the real unemployment rate. Here are the BLS categories. Note that the “official” unemployment rate is covered under U3:

U1: Percentage of labor force unemployed 15 weeks or longer.
U2: Percentage of labor force who lost jobs or completed temporary work.
U3: Official unemployment rate per ILO definition.
U4: U3 + “discouraged workers”, or those who have stopped looking for work because current economic conditions make them believe that no work is available for them.
U5: U4 + other “marginally attached workers”, or “loosely attached workers”, or those who “would like” and are able to work, but have not looked for work recently.
U6: U5 + Part time workers who want to work full time, but cannot due to economic reasons (underemployment).

So, real unemployment would probably fall under U6

Source

the “official” unemployment rate is significantly higher than what they are telling us…but the Gov’t just shrunk the pie by removing off the map many businesses that closed their doors. It is still above 10% if they stuck by the older, as in 2 months ago, unemployment accounting practices.