A pool of “missing workers” as large as the economy of Illinois is being ignored by the official unemployment rate, according to a think tank run by America’s big labor unions.
These workers have disappeared from the labor force since the start of the Great Recession in 2008, having given up looking for work.
If their plight were counted accurately the December 2013 unemployment rate would zoom from the “official” 6.7 percent to a whopping 10.2 percent.
An official number this high has not been recorded since 1940, the year before American entry into World War II.
Using U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that factor out changing demographics - such as a growing number of retirees - the Economic Policy Institute reportconcludes nearly 6 million additional Americans would be looking for work today if we used the labor force participation standard in effect for 2008 and earlier.
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