8.171 million w/o jobs in unemployment rate-but 13.585 million want FTwork

The Unemployment rate uses "8.171 million people unemployed in February" - but there were another 4.931 million who were working part-time but wanting to work full time, and 484,000 "discouraged workers," who had given up looking for work, for a total of 13.585 million people.

From the Dept of Labor:
HOUSEHOLD DATA

Table A-12.Alternative measures of labor underutilization (Percent)
Not seasonally adjusted Seasonally adjusted

Measure Feb. Jan. Feb. Feb. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. 2003 2004 2004 2003 2003 2003 2003 2004 2004
U-1 Persons unemployed 15 weeks or longer, as a percent of the civilian labor force................................. 2.4 2.4 2.4 2.2 2.4 2.4 2.3 2.3 2.2

U-2 Job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs, as a percent of the civilian labor force.................... 3.8 3.6 3.3 3.3 3.3 3.2 3.1 3.0 3.0
U-3 Total unemployed, as a percent of the civilian labor force (official unemployment rate)....................... 6.4 6.3 6.0 5.9 6.0 5.9 5.7 5.6 5.6
U-4 Total unemployed plus discouraged workers, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus discouraged workers..... 6.6 6.5 6.3 6.2 6.3 6.2 6.0 5.9 5.9
U-5 Total unemployed, plus discouraged workers, plus all other marginally attached workers, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers.................................................. 7.4 7.3 7.1 6.9 7.0 6.8 6.7 6.7 6.7

U-6 Total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers......................................... 10.8 10.9 10.3 10.1 10.2 10.1 9.9 9.9 9.6

NOTE: Marginally attached workers are persons who currently are neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they want and are available for a job and have looked for work sometime in the recent past. Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached, have given a job-market related reason for not currently looking for a job. Persons employed part time for economic reasons are those who want and are available for full-time work but have had to settle for a part-time schedule. For further information, see "BLS introduces new range of alternative unemployment measures," in the October 1995 issue of the Monthly Labor Review. Beginning in January 2004, data reflect revised population controls used in the household survey.

...the real inflation costs are? Gas has climbed another 8 cents a gallon from last Tuesday to $1.779 regular unleaded and $2.019 premium here in Orlando FL. I'm seeing food staples rising too regardless of which super market, utility costs, service costs, local and state taxes, all the basic necessities that the average person can't avoid, are creeping up. Is there a Table Z-12 for real inflation?:crazy:

overall is is a continuing discussion. Folks have a "seniors inflation " based on one set of weightings, a fellow on DU has noted the hiding of real estate inflation in the official number via a heavy weighting on rent inflation rather than home price, -

I'm not an economist although I have a bit of training and access to data - I'm an actuary. Meaning that off the top of my head I do not know where the spreadsheet is at BEA.DOC.GOV that has the inputs and weightings so that one could play and use different weightings and come up with a new overall number (I find following the notes and addendum to reports gives a fair view of what is changing in general).

But the DU fellow - I am embarrassed that I am having a senior moment and not remembering the name - has actually done some heavy lifting in this area and may be able to help you.

:-)

"I will use the Bully Pulpit to make Opec open those pumps".

I was buying it at .83 cents. Now 1.65.

Sic em Texas Souffle!

Is this Boy full of crap or what!

you tend to hear about is the 2.2/2.9 million jobs lost and the 5.6% unemployment. Over 8 million make up that rather benign sounding percentage! And over 13 million if you include the underemployed.

Pretty dang depressing. ;(

:-)

called in to a local radio show on Tuesday - said that the real numbers in Indiana of unemployed plus those fallen off the roles (but NOT including the underemployed) is around 14%, and that the numbers of the surrounding states of Ohio and Illinois were close to 12%. While not verifiable - his point and frustration was that without truley identifying the problem no policy makers were going to deal with the problem in a substantive way.

Nowhere else had I heard estimates that were so high. I assume that he has access to data and analyses - but anyone can call a radio station anonymously. If this person has good data, one can only hope that he or a colleague would somehow leak verifiable data to the press.