David Stockman explains what the real unemployment rate is:
“…the Fed’s current “soft” target of 5.2% on the U-3 unemployment rate is downright ridiculous… The U-3 unemployment rate as a proxy for full employment does not even make it as primitive grade school economics.
“At the present time, there are 210 million adult Americans between the ages of 16 and 68—to take a plausible measure of the potential work force. That amounts to 420 billion potential labor hours, if we accept the convention that all adults are at least theoretically capable of holding a full-time job (2,000 hours/year) and pulling their share of society’s need for production and work effort.
“By contrast, during 2014 only 240 billion hours were actually supplied to the US economy, according to the BLS estimates. Technically, therefore, there were 180 billion unemployed labor hours, meaning that the real unemployment rate was 42.9%, not 5.5%!”
This post was last modified on June 28, 2015
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Stockman is a very good economist.
Compared to Paul Krugman, the Geico Gecko is a brilliant economist.
http://theferalirishman.blogspot.com/2015/06/yup-almost.html
Stolen!!
So then, the 5.2% the government claims is pretty close, they just moved the decimal point to the left one space by mistake.
With in an order of magnitude, what do you want...... ;)
Close enough for government work.
Add in the number of disabled who aren't eligible to work, and we get rather close to the 47 percent Romney was talking about.
But fudging the numbers works so much better then getting people off the plantation.
Great! Almost half of the working (and one assumes legal) population of the USA is unemployed or under employed this is fantastic... so half will support the other half AND the illegals and whoever else!
Lovely!!!!
That's all part of the plan, Sis!
Like the GDP, we should really not measure this any longer. Unemployment is just what the government says. Nothing more to see,,,
Unfortunately he uses 'old school' math, no loony leftist educated after 1965 is going to have any idea what he's talking about!
Right out of the communist manifesto. Lie, lie and lie some more. Until the lie becomes the truth. All you worshiper so who are enjoying your artistic time,. How do all of you feel now? No answer is necessary. You all are too stupid or to full of yourselves to admit that you are far worse today than in 2008
Now THERE is Obama's REAL legacy!
"...theoretically capable of holding a full-time job..." I fear there are fewer of those than Stockman posits, given the wretched nature of our public schools for the past 50 years.
Part of the plan most likely.. at least over the past couple decades... effectively rendering the working age population educationally disabled. How else does this trend of rewarding mediocrity make any sense whatsoever?