GOP lawmaker calls for change to how government measures unemployment

GOP lawmaker calls for change to how government measures unemployment
By Molly K. Hooper - 04/08/12 02:35 PM ET -- The Hill


Well it's about time a politician actually talks about this !!

The unemployment figures we have been seeing are malarkey (like BeeEss).

The real unemployment number has been hovering around 14% as many people know.

The U.S. Department of Labor provides the unemployment statistics.

And it seems that many people do not realize that the statistics are actually telephone surveys,
conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Not necessarily "real" numbers !!.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) is attempting to get support for a bill (the REAL Unemployment Calculation Act) that would emphasize a different unemployment number.

The common one we keep hearing is the "U3" report. He wants to place more importance on the "U5" figures.

Of course, the Democratic Senate will probably be against this for obvious reasons !!

A Republican lawmaker is intensifying his push for legislation that would change how the government measures the unemployment rate.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) intends to press GOP leaders to move his bill to include the number of individuals who gave up looking for work in the percentage of jobless claims.

Should the government measure unemployment with Hunter's figure, the unemployment rate would be higher than the current rate of approximately 8 percent — a potentially devastating assessment for the White House, especially in an election year.

His one-page legislation, the REAL Unemployment Calculation Act, would require “the federal government [to] cite, as its official unemployment calculation, the figure that takes into account those who are no longer looking for work,” not only those individuals actively seeking jobs.

For example, the most recent unemployment rate released on Friday, at 8.2 percent unemployment, would be officially considered 9.6 percent, the so-called U-5 rate that was also released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

However, the "U6" number is the genuine article !!

That is around 14.5% for March 2012 !!

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

Here is the Dept of Labor website.

Please read the info they have !!!!!


Where do the statistics come from?

Early each month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the U.S. Department of Labor announces the total number of employed and unemployed persons in the United States for the previous month, along with many characteristics of such persons. These figures, particularly the unemployment rate—which tells you the percent of the labor force that is unemployed—receive wide coverage in the media.

Some people think that to get these figures on unemployment, the Government uses the number of persons filing claims for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits under State or Federal Government programs. But some people are still jobless when their benefits run out, and many more are not eligible at all or delay or never apply for benefits. So, quite clearly, UI information cannot be used as a source for complete information on the number of unemployed.

Other people think that the Government counts every unemployed person each month. To do this, every home in the country would have to be contacted—just as in the population census every 10 years. This procedure would cost way too much and take far too long. Besides, people would soon grow tired of having a census taker come to their homes every month, year after year, to ask about job-related activities....


There are about 60,000 households in the sample for this survey. This translates into approximately 110,000 individuals, a large sample compared to public opinion surveys which usually cover fewer than 2,000 people. The CPS sample is selected so as to be representative of the entire population of the United States. In order to select the sample, all of the counties and county-equivalent cities in the country first are grouped into 2,025 geographic areas (sampling units). The Census Bureau then designs and selects a sample consisting of 824 of these geographic areas to represent each State and the District of Columbia. The sample is a State-based design and reflects urban and rural areas, different types of industrial and farming areas, and the major geographic divisions of each State. (For a detailed explanation of CPS sampling methodology, see Chapter 1, of the BLS Handbook of Methods.)

The "U" systems


BLS website

reply to post by xuenchen


Unemployment needs to be re-thought, but also we need better statistics on how many jobs are seasonal, part time, etc... Obama "created" so many jobs, without people noticing how many were at minimum wage (which below is what you can make on unemployment, easily)... Stats can be so easily manipulated in every-which way...

Just a quick example if I asked 100 people if they like to kill babies, probably close to 100% would say no one would want to. But I could twist that statistic to say that 0% of people believe that abortion should be practiced... Just saying.

reply to post by PhysicsAdept


Great point !

They also need to get a summary report using Real statistics.

Unemployment checks are paid every week to Real people.

How about a real count ?

W2 forms are generated each year for all employed people.

A genuine report could easily be summarized annually.

I bet the unemployment number with genuine data would be around 25%.

The way unemployment was calculated was originally made under Reagan, to make Reagan's unemployment numbers look better.

So trying to slam Obama for the fake unemployment numbers created under Reagan is pure hypocrisy.