How Can 40 percent of Americans be Unemployed But The Unemployment Rate be a Low 4.6 percent?

December 2, 2016

This is INSANE! As of the end of November, a whopping 95.06 MILLION Americans are out of the labor force.

Source Article: www.msn.com...

Since there are 244 million adult citizens in the USA, does this mean that 40% of them don't have a job? Or maybe they're sole proprietors, or working on a "cash" basis?

But, the UNEMPLOYMENT RATE is at a 9 year low, which is 4.6%.

Should President Obama get CREDIT, or BLAME for these latest employment figures?

-CareWeMust

I might be wrong, but I think the advertised 'unemployment rates' are soley based off those who have acutally applied for unemployment (welfare).

a reply to: carewemust

I read somewhere a while back, if you give up looking for work you arent counted in the stats. Like people who are content to collect welfare and not work pretty much forever, as far as I know they are not counted in the number. If you count under employed people, that number would be way over 95 million.

originally posted by: annoyedpharmacist
a reply to: carewemust

I read somewhere a while back, if you give up looking for work you arent counted in the stats. Like people who are content to collect welfare and not work pretty much forever, as far as I know they are not counted in the number. If you count under employed people, that number would be way over 95 million.

Yep, that's a big part of it. If you are unemployed and 'give up' - you don't count as an American who is looking for a job. I don't know the actual numbers, but that definitely comes into it.

There are multiple calculations for nationwide and state by state unemployment.

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 (this is the definition used for the official unemployment rate);
U-4, total unemployed plus discouraged workers, as a 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; and
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.

www.bls.gov...

The explanation I've seen explained goes as follows(correct me if I'm wrong); These unemployment rates do not count those who have dropped out of finding work. The ones counted are on unemployment.

Some say the real unemployment average, if the above was counted in as well, is probably somewhere around 20%.

"" How Can 40 percent of Americans be Unemployed But The Unemployment Rate be a Low 4.6 percent? ""

simple answer: it can't.

the U6 is 9.3%

a reply to: annoyedpharmacist

Yes, this is my understanding as well.

Unemployed only means you're looking for work and not finding it. Plenty of people not looking, for whatever reason..

originally posted by: dreamingawake
The explanation I've seen explained goes as follows(correct me if I'm wrong); These unemployment rates do not count those who have dropped out of finding work. The ones counted are on unemployment.

Some say the real unemployment average, if the above was counted in as well, is probably somewhere around 20%.

If you take the 95 million adult Americans who are out of the Labor Force, and divide that by 243 million ADULT Americans in the country, you come up with a roughly 40% Unemployment rate.

I think just because a person's unemployment benefits have run out, doesn't mean that they're not working. I mean, it's hard to say what percentage of people aren't earning an income. In the cities, there is a huge underworld of LEGAL and ILLEGAL cash-only incomes.

a reply to: carewemust

Definition is what matters. I think it counts people that are of the work force(from the age of 16 possibly) and actively looking for a job. So if you aren't looking you aren't unemployed(to my knowledge) which is very weird.

Decade after decade, the method of calculating unemployment as been changed to show less unemployment.

If the most accurate method were still in use from this period (1965-1975) it would be between 25-29%.

In short, its all Bravo Sierra.

Buck

a reply to: xuenchen

I never understood why there are so many different measures of unemployment, U-1 - U-6. Why cant it be simple, you are not working and not retired, you count as unemployed.

you are only considered unemployed while you are receiving unemployment insurance. if you are still unemployed at the time your unemployment insurance payments expire you are no longer included in the official unemployment percentage.

The way they doctor the official unemployment rate we could have everyone in the country out of work but still have only a %1 unemployment rate.
They have to rig the official unemployment rate because if they revealed the true unemployment rate people would know just how bad the economy is.

if you want a job but don`t have one then you are unemployed no matter what the government says.

a reply to: carewemust

Unemployment benefits go for 99 weeks. If you're benefits run out then you're no longer considered to be looking for work so you're not counted in the unemployment category any longer even though you are still unemployed.

Roughly speaking: if you have 100 people in your town and ten are unemployed, you have 10% unemployment. If two of the ten run out of benefits then they're no longer counted and now you have eight people considered unemployed. You're unemployment dropped to 8% which you would think is good but it's based on creative counting not production.

You can't have the number of unemployed growing at record numbers and also have the unemployment number go down at the same time, real math doesn't work that way.

Read how they get the numbers from their site and it'll make a lot more sense to you.

The running unemployment rate is based on the number of people applying for and receiving unemployment. When your six months of unemployment are exhausted you are no longer counted among the running total percentage. If you count the number of people who used to have full time jobs but are only working part time for low wages instead of having no income at all the numbers are far worse. I am talking about the people who were making an average of $40k per year who are now making $8k a year. What used to be a good part time job for a high school student is now the only income some people have to live on. But don't worry. Obama will be out there at the end of the month applauding himself for the great job growth in November and December and he will say it is a sign his economic policies are working. The rest of us will call it seasonal part time jobs that will be gone in January.

a reply to: carewemust

Ugh god those numbers. Will Trump bring us jobs and the ones we want? Stay tuned!

It's called...

"Cooking the books"!

That's how.

Our government can do anything, they have the best people in the world twisting the figures. Even by getting more people to go to college they are taking them off the unemployment roles.

Because all of the H1b workers are padding the numbers?