I tried to understand the unemployment rate by reading the numbers published by the US, but they are very confusing and don’t seem to answer the raw question of how many people in the US are unemployed. So, I did my own calculation and here it is
There’s about 312,000,000 people in the USA. Of that number, about 42 million are kids under age 18 and about 41 million are adults over age 65. Subtracting out those numbers leaves about 229,000,000 adults between the ages of 18 and 65. Because the government numbers kind of weasel their way around who’s “employed”, I have to extrapolate, but it appears about 130,000,000 people between age 18 and 65 are employed. Of that number, some unknown, but likely significant number are only partially employed. So it seems safe to conclude that the unemployment rate can’t be anywhere near 8 percent, and is more likely closer to 50 percent.
Please challenge me on this.
- BANISHED
