Our Hidden and Shameful Unemployment Rate

"What we don't know is often worse than what we do know..."

By now, we have all heard about the different unemployment rates. It is confusing and some think it is a "shell game" just to put "lipstick on the pig". The U3 unemployment rate is particularly confusing as sometimes when more people leave the workforce than are hired, the unemployment rate actually goes down. Consequently. there are many variables going into the U3 which may yield a number that seldom reflects reality. But that is the number we use, so we are stuck with it. This number floats between 7.3 and 7.5 percent.

The number many economists like to use is the U6 index. This takes some of the variables into consideration such as underemployment, work force participation and so on. This number is currently stuck at around 13.5% to 14%.

Those are the two numbers we have been hearing about - the U3 and more infrequently, the U6. However, under the surface, there is another number lurking which is seldom mentioned - and it is insidious. According to a February 2013 article from the Daily Caller, the following was noted:

Blacks account for 12 percent of the labor force, according to the U.S. Joint Economic Committee, but suffered from a 13.8 percent (U3) jobless rate in January 2013 and make up 25 percent of workers who have been unemployed for longer than 99 weeks.
Furthermore, the number of black workers looking for work has fallen by almost 300,000 since 2011, and there are nearly 2.6 million black workers who want to work but can’t find a job.

In addition, the article went on to say that for a young black person without a high school degree, the unemployment rate is over 25%.

These numbers are a national disgrace. There is also higher than average unemployment in the Hispanic community, but it is not as high as in the African American community. For some reason of which I have not been able to figure out, these numbers are seldom reported. Yet, by allowing this trend to continue, we are undoing decades of progress and are slowly creating a permanent underclass. This is absolutely unacceptable.

There is one more hidden employment number which is often not reported on. Jobs lost and new jobs created are many times not the same. Less money, less opportunity, fewer (if any) benefits. Unlike people, not all jobs are created equal. This an intangible metric - there is not a number than can be assigned to this. But it is real, none-the-less.

So due to the out of control Fed, the market continues to climb, and the "haves" continue to fattened up their wallets. Remember this however - there is another part to this story which is not so rosy. A "real" press would be all over this. Our "lap dog" press is concerned only with their own agenda.