Chart of the Week: Augmented Unemployment Rate

The Augmented Unemployment Rate reflects the discouraged, the underemployed, the part timers. It provides a more helpful macro view of employees as potential retail consumers.

Real Unemployment?
augmented.gif
Source: TheStreet.com

According to this government statistic, the actual unemployment rate is closer to 9%. This may be a more accurate measure of labor than using new unemployment claims.

Random Items:
Complacency Is Making Contrarians Nervous
boom, bust and ballplayers
41 Months of Factory Layoffs
Rupert’s World: Get ready for a fierce new media war
The Silver Lining Economy
The No-Bang, All-Whimper Recovery

Quote of the Day:
“In all my years as a Fed watcher, I have never seen US central bankers take to the bully pulpit as they have in recent days. . . They smack of a carefully orchestrated campaign of economic cheerleading at a critical point in the US business cycle . . . While normally reticent monetary authorities are to be commended for taking a strong point of view, I fear they may live to regret this exuberance.
Stephen Roach, Chief Economist and Director of Global Economic Analysis, Morgan Stanley

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

What's been said:

Discussions found on the web:
  1. John Aspinall commented on Jan 13

    What on earth is the vertical scale on that graph?
    6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 9, 10, 10

    I can *almost* explain it by assuming that every other number N is actually N+0.5, and rounding for presentation makes the ‘.5’s disappear. But neither rounding up nor rounding down explains why 9 only appears once.

  2. nyc99 commented on Jan 13

    The Actual Unemployment Rate Is Closer To 9%

    The Big Picture: Chart of the Week: Augmented Unemployment RateChart of the Week: Augmented Unemployment Rate The Augmented Unemployment Rate reflects the discouraged, the underemployed, the part timers. It provides a more helpful macro view of employe…

  3. Tapart News article commented on Jan 25

    Tapart News and Art that Talks covers the issues of Globalism, Free Trade, wars, terrorism, real unemployment and more.
    It starts with the need for real jobs and not wars. It demonstrates the actual unemployment rates in the USA which can easily be at 15% or more if compared to the unemployment reporting from the 1970s and 1980s.
    Unemployment during those years, were based primarily on full-time jobs with benefits. The Bureau of Labor Statistics no longer can use the unemployment insurance data to collect unemployment rates since only about 40% of all workers now qualify for unemployment insurance. They either to not work long enough on any one job in a given period or they do not make enough money to qualify. However, the BLS counts a person employed today even if they make only about $100 a month. In the 1970s this would be a laughing matter not to be taken seriously.
    All should study the way the BLS collects their data. They actually have 6 ways but only the way that shows the least amount of unemployment is passed on to the media.
    Get America Working forum reports that the USA only uses about one half of all our human resources. Only about 80 million are working full time. For more information see Tapart Real News and Art that Talks at http://tapartnews.filetap.com See also top newspaper story featuring the American Dream Is Burning artwork, Clinton Years- American Dream Reversed, Locked out Workers bearing their Cross and The Cross 9-11 Tangle of Terror asking who will now untangle the terror Globalism and Free Trade have bred. See also http://arklineart.fotopages.com for more editorial art.

  4. The Big Picture commented on Mar 5

    The Misleading Jobless Rate

    David Leonhardt has an interesting article in today’s NYT about a subject we have discussed around here ad nauseum: The Misleading Jobless Rate. Over the years, TBP has looked at the Augmented unemployment rate, as well as the NILF issue (Not In Labor …

  5. The Big Picture commented on Apr 12

    Jobless vs. Unemployed

    In today’s NYT, Floyd Norris hits on a subject that has been a favorite of ours over the years: Finding the true measure of the economy’s labor situation.The unemployment rate is low. The jobless rate is high.Those two seemingly contradictory statement…

Posted Under