Including people who have given up and looking and those who have part time job, but want full time employment the unemployment rate looks closer to 18%. Put another way, it approaches the level seen during the 1930s. I think I need a drink…
The part-time business gets to one of the many failings with the unemployment rate: It only counts a particular type of frustrated worker, those who are unemployed and looking for a new position. But what about the “marginally attached”? Workers who are unemployed and want work, but haven’t actively searched in the past four weeks, possibly because they can’t find any work and there are no new jobs in their area. They’re not counted. Nor are the frustrated part-timers. The Cleveland Federal Reserve published a chart measuring unemployment, and then showing what happens when you add these two groups: Unemployment jumps from a shade beneath 10 percent to a bit beneath 18 percent, or almost a fifth of the population.
