Scared Monkeys Discussion Forum

Zuckerman seeks to demonstrate that “after four years, America remains in a jobs depression as great as the Great Depression.” The only difference is that, compared with then, we don’t notice the unemployed as much today because of all the government programs that keep them out of soup kitchens and bread lines.

The U.S. Department of Labor has six ways of computing unemployment that differ markedly according to the assumptions informing the exercise. Clearly, the outcome that most favors any federal administration is the one regularly reported in the media — it currently sets the unemployment rate just below 8 percent.

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The U.S. Department of Labor’s worst calculation (from any administration’s standpoint) places the current unemployment rate at more than 14 percent — a point underscored by Zuckerman. I only wish that bad news were as bad as it gets. Unfortunately, I do not believe so.

If we define the working age as between 18 and 65, according to the 2012 estimate of the U.S. population, there were approximately 200 million Americans in that age group. As of last month, there were approximately 133 million employed Americans. Without further hairsplitting regarding such factors as the underemployment of persons in unattractive jobs beneath their skill level, involuntary part-time employment, enforced furloughs and vacation leaves, salary reductions and lost benefits, the simple math produces about 67 million unemployed Americans in their working years.