Behind the decline in consumer confidence is another story that is even more telling.

The US government just published the Unemployment Rate, it’s 16.5% as per the U-6 measurement system. Why the U-3 is cited in the Media rather than the U-6 is nothing less than mind boggling.

U-1 Persons unemployed 15 weeks or longer, as a percent of the civilian labor force

U-2 Job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs, as a percent of the civilian labor force.

U-3 Total unemployed, as a percent of the civilian labor force (official unemployment rate)

U-4 Total unemployed plus discouraged workers, as percent of the civilian labor force plus discouraged workers

U-5 Total unemployed, plus discouraged workers, plus all other marginally attached workers, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers

U-6 Total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers.

NOTE: Marginally attached workers are persons who currently are neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they want and are available for a job and have looked for work sometime in the recent past. Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached, have given a job-market related reason for not looking currently for a job. Persons employed part time for economic reasons are those who want and are available for full-time work but have had to settle for a part-time schedule. For more information, see “BLS introduces new range of alternative unemployment measures,” in the October 1995 issue of the Monthly Labor Review. Updated population controls are introduced annually with the release of January data.

The U-6 is actually the closest to the unemployment rate that was accounted for during the great depression.

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• Unemployment drops to 9.7%. OK, so here’s the conflicting part of their report:
• Revealing the hidden “story” in job report…
• 2009 Can’t be “better off” (at least in an economic sense)

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