The U.S. official unemployment rate U-3 is misleading and not the true unemployment rate

The Bottom Line

While the alternative measures show very similar movements over the course of the business cycle, they differ significantly in magnitude from the official unemployment rate. The strict definition of unemployment under the official U-3 measure may result in understating the magnitude of the actual unemployment situation. It is therefore advisable to look beyond the headline (U-3) unemployment number, as it may not convey the whole story. The U-6 measure, by virtue of being the least restrictive and therefore the highest unemployment rate, may provide a truer picture of the degree of labor underutilization.

The government created U-1 to U-7 unemployment rates back in the mid 1990's, the official unemployment rate (U-3) filters out allot of people. The real unemployment rate is actually is about double, why does the media and government hide this?

Below are the links, the labor department burys these unemployment rates.


portalseven.com...

Click on U-1 thru U-6 below on the website link.

Definitions of U-1 thru U-6 below, do not click on them.

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.


No wonder they say the unemployment is dropping, actually some of the unemployed are not fitting into the U-3 criteria so they are removed but our honest government calls it job creation.

Economies are based on belief. If people believe that people are working and the economy is doing well, they spend more. I know this sounds like we are living a lie, but we have been living this lie for a long time. We will have a major crash of the Economy within the year. An economy based on so many deceptions cannot survive. It is not just the US, it is a lot of countries.

This deception goes deep into our social beliefs. We have been programmed to believe in this social scam or be at risk of being considered a nut. A bolt is of no use without a nut, the nut holds the bolt in place. We just don't have enough nuts that know reality in this world to keep the economy secure these days.

reply to post by rickymouse


Very well said!

reply to post by maxzen2004


I'm a grade eight nut.

Outstanding thread! I'm amazed at how well the Government and media do with deflecting attention from what you're throwing light on here. All stats aren't equal and we aren't shown the most important one by a long shot. It's sitting right in plain view of course, on the BLS website. However....if you don't have reason to suspect more exists...it may as well not exist, eh?

Thanks for helping to push back ignorance on the play we see with numbers everyday!

maxzen2004
The Bottom Line

While the alternative measures show very similar movements over the course of the business cycle, they differ significantly in magnitude from the official unemployment rate. The strict definition of unemployment under the official U-3 measure may result in understating the magnitude of the actual unemployment situation. It is therefore advisable to look beyond the headline (U-3) unemployment number, as it may not convey the whole story. The U-6 measure, by virtue of being the least restrictive and therefore the highest unemployment rate, may provide a truer picture of the degree of labor underutilization.

The government created U-1 to U-7 unemployment rates back in the mid 1990's, the official unemployment rate (U-3) filters out allot of people. The real unemployment rate is actually is about double, why does the media and government hide this?

Below are the links, the labor department burys these unemployment rates.


portalseven.com...

Click on U-1 thru U-6 below on the website link.

Definitions of U-1 thru U-6 below, do not click on them.

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.


No wonder they say the unemployment is dropping, actually some of the unemployed are not fitting into the U-3 criteria so they are removed but our honest government calls it job creation.

edit on 14-3-2014 by maxzen2004 because: Clarification

Well this hasn't been a secret for a long, long time Basically what conservatives have been saying but the MSM has been ignoring for the last 6 years. U6 is the real number if you are interested in knowing how many people are not working that might want to be doing so

reply to post by maxzen2004


And if you consider the actual employees of the federal government as special cases of the unemployed as they cost so much more than a simple unemployed citizen and produce nothing for the economy, the real rate skyrockets further.

reply to post by rickymouse


both are linked as they also need to keep usd not too low for that (it is currently collapsing) so they feed us with as good numbers as they can so it remains believable (while manipulating the rates as well and as much as they can of course - many really strange gold rate behaviour last week).

they're so totally stuck :

* the time is still not right to them (fed banksters) to allow that long due huge crash to happen
* the slowing down of the QE did not work out (usd is lower than it was before the tapping !)
* they cannot issue much more debt (housing market cannot inflate anymore to compensate -as it does since bretton woods- as more & more house are vacant & useless since so many loses theirs to the banks)
* russia doesn't seem in it to start a wolrd war that would reset the economy

i don't know what are their next step but it's very scary to me - we know they are capable of the worst

Well I think for many that look at the true number know there is no going back. Now it's just a matter of when things fall apart.

reply to post by anHairInTheSoup


I actually don't think a war will stop this collapse anyway. They have abused that system way too often in the past and even with Russia's cooporation to start a war, it won't work. The jobs created will only be high tech jobs utilizing robotics. That doesn't create much work except for the people who can run them.

My issue with unemployment numbers is that it paints it as this sort of black and white issue.

It becomes this you have a job or you don't have a job issue. Even though you can have a full-time job and qualify as employed meanwhile you're making minimum wage, working your ass off and barely keeping food on the table for your family. It's so much more than just who is and who isn't employed and I really wish that there were more effective way's to compare how the wage gap factor comes into play.

Like for instance I want to see what the unemployment numbers are. But then I want to turn around and see what the unemployment numbers are when you also count people that make under ten dollars an hour as unemployed because they basically are.

reply to post by rickymouse


the cycle had been financial crisis, appropriation of all the wealth by the elite, war, chaos & destruction, new international financial scam, reconstruction

i hope you're right but i'm afraid it'll still work

greencmp
reply to post by maxzen2004

 

And if you consider the actual employees of the federal government as special cases of the unemployed as they cost so much more than a simple unemployed citizen and produce nothing for the economy, the real rate skyrockets further.

Don't leave out the contractors (esp. those who work for the MIC).

reply to post by Snarl


I read that if you were self employed and you became unemployed, you don't count in the unemployment numbers.

Real estate agents, mortgage brokers, small business owners, etc.

In my opinion, this is proof that our government is bought by the elite.

As of today, the government announced an unemployment rate of 6.3%. However, if we look at the numbers reported by CBS DC today, the number of employable adults out of the workforce is approximately 93 million. If we estimate the total number of employable adults (over 18) at 240 million ( as reported averages, link below), then we are talking about a real unemployment rate of around 30% ( I say around, because we are dealing with estimates, and seasonal fluctuation).

Scary, because if memory serves, overinflated unemployment is a leading cause of unrest and a chief motivator of greater government oversight and regulation, in the name of "job creation".

Links:
CBS DC REPORT

Census data

This is kind of old news, that the reported unemployment rates look better than the reality. It's good to revisit this once in a while for the unaware, but if anyone tries to assign blame to the current administration, that's a foul.

a reply to: ~Lucidity

It's been 6 years, my friend. At what point do we begin laying at least some of the blame on the current admin? I can't imagine a single other profession or business (and isn't a really badly organized business what the government really is?) where 6 years in to a new CEO we still point back to the previous CEO and say it was their fault, without absorbing at least a portion of the blame ourselves. This isn't 2010, or 2012 anymore. We are 6 years out. The only way you could even remotely hope to not lay any blame on the current admin is to also not lay blame on the previous one, but go all the way back to the early 90's when the regulations that set up the 2007 crash were implemented. Even the wars don't even out the playing field for blame on the current economic situation. It's a scapegoat, at best.

When the numbers don't match what you want them to be, just change how you calculate them until they say what you want.

US Gov at it's finest.

a reply to: Everlastingknowitall
If you must blame "administrations" and not go wider, I'd start laying the blame with Reagan, who laid the first real groundwork, but what I'd really do if I were you was ake a really long, hard look at what the corporations did with their buddy Congress from that point on.

This administration's not the first to publish these numbers, probably won't be the last. Apples to apples though.

a reply to: ~Lucidity

I'd go a bit further back, personally. Nixon gave the economy a shot to the gut with the break from a standard to back our money with. Gold, Silver or beads from a girl down the street. Whatever...we need something, and that's the moment in time where the U.S. Dollar officially broke to 'float' in credit bliss and where reality officially disconnected it's little wagon from U.S. economic policy.

Carter tried wishful thinking while imploring America to drive 55 and wear a sweater..which included a real life Embargo for his foreign policy finesse'. (rolls eyes)

Reagan kick started some things while tearing up a few others which really did matter. (Mental Health systems were more than a little important, despite his opinion and dismantling of it)

Honestly though....It's not even the Presidents. It's sure not the Corps who generally DO follow the law. It's those who write those laws to define "following it" as something we'd never recognize that way. We can't directly change corporations..nor should we ever try in a free nation and where a free market is still being paid lip service, anyway.

IMO....We CAN control who sits in Congress. If people would just stop hating all of congress..EXCEPT the guy in THEIR district. Umm..That covers all of them, and has, and continues to..when one thinks about it a moment.