THE MYTH OF THE UNEMPLOYMENT NUMBERS: What people don't realize about the unemployment numbers...is that they are heavily politicized numbers that do not necessarily reflect reality.
(1) The numbers do not tell us what kinds of jobs people work. An upper middle class job counts just as much as a poverty-wage job. Did you know that people in third world countries work too? It's quite possible to have 5% unemployment with the majority of the populace being working poor. They're all employed--they're just working poor. (Don't like the low wage? We'll ship your job to China.) So, 95% employment at poverty wage jobs = 5% unemployment. (Yippee!) and 95% employment at solid middle class jobs = 5% unemployment. (OMG, it looks the same!) Thus, the unemployment number doesn't tell us all that much about the actual state of the job market or people's standard of living. It doesn't tell us whether we're still a first world country or whether we're descending to third world status.
(2) The unemployment numbers often purposely ignore people who have "dropped out" of the job market. These are people who want to work but often can't find anything other than poverty wage jobs. You'd more or less refer to them as being unemployed if you knew them personally. So, the laid-off 57 year old MBA who suffers age discrimination and who concludes that he might as well just retire early and live frugally off of his savings rather than work at McWalmart is not "unemployed" according to the data even though he'd like to work at a job that's appropriate to his abilities. The college-educated guy who's been searching for a middle class job for over a year might be regarded as having "dropped out" of the labor force--so he doesn't count as unemployed. The college-educated mother of two who decides that it makes more economic sense to be a housewife because she can't find anything better than a $7/hour job also doesn't count as unemployed even though she'd gladly take a job that paid a wage commensurate to the value of her college degree.
(3) The unemployment numbers may count part-time work. The guy who's seriously underemployed and only working 10 hours/week still counts as "employed" even though we know he's probably poor.
(4) The unemployment numbers don't tell us about underemployment. You know that smart guy with the Ph.D. in Chemistry who works 65 hours/week as a postdoctoral research (a "postdoc") without any benefits or job security on a 2-year gypsy scientist position for a mere $30,000/year (!!!)? (This comes after 10 years of college education.) He's employed too as far as the unemployment numbers are concerned! You know that guy with the bachelor's degree who could only find work for $8/hour as a cashier at the local office supply store? He's "employed" too as far as the unemployment numbers are concerned.
(5) It's possible that people who work multiple jobs might count as multiple employed people in the unemployment numbers. So, when the impoverished mother of three who works three jobs is counted, even though she can barely support herself and her family on her three jobs, she counts as (ta-da) three employed people! As a result, of the above, the real unemployment number is a multiple of the reported "unemployment" number. So, if the unemployment number is "5%" the real number is probably more like 25%. The unemployment number should be changed to only count solid middle class jobs (and better) jobs. That would provide us with a much better indicator of the state of the employment market. The numbers they're reporting for us now are worse than worthless because they are so misleading.
