8 MAY 2009, Friday

1. Grim Statistics...The official unemployment rate is 8.9% and rising sharply. However, if you start counting all the people that want a job but gave up, all the people with part-time jobs that want a full-time job, all the people who dropped off the unemployment rolls because their unemployment benefits ran out, etc., you get a closer picture of what the unemployment rate is. That number is in the last row labeled U-6. It reflects how unemployment feels to the average Joe on the street. U-6 is 15.8%. (U-6 statistic was created under the Clinton administration to allow a better appearance by subtracting out the "discouraged unemployed" from U-3, the official unemployment rate. Neat trickery huh?)