How Government Calculates the Unemployed (2013-01-04)

U.S. gov jobs data shows multiple different calculations of who is unemployed. The most common is the U-3 calculation to get to the “official” version of the unemployment rate. However the U-3 calculation leaves out millions of unemployed workers. When factoring these workers back into the labor force, the true unemployment rate is no less than 9.4%.

If you also factor those people who can only find part-time jobs but who want full-time jobs into the unemployment data, the unemployment rate (U-6 calculation) would then be 14.4%. Please see the hyper-link above to view a PDF copy of the government’s unemployment calculation tables.

Data Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Data as of December 2012, published 01-04-2013 by BLS.gov

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