Buddy,
The Detroit Free Press is full of it. Indeed, it is true that some of the longterm unemployed were not counted as unemployed members of the workforce, but in a separate category - people not in the workforce, but would like a job (a subset being those who are discouraged). The number of these discouraged and longterm unemployed people, seem to be very difficult to reduce even in the BEST of times.
In November, the number of people out of the workforce (but would like a job) were 4.2 million people. Last November, the number was 4.4 million people. BUT if you look at a similar period in the Clinton Administration (34 months post inauguration) - November 1995, 5.1 million Americans were not considered members of the workforce, but indicated that they wanted a job. Even in the last full month of the Clinton Administration, 4.2 million people were members of this group. Incredibly, at the peak of the Internet/financial/y2k bubble (Dec 1999) - over 4 million people were not counted as members of the workforce, but indicated they wanted a job (and over a million of these were "discouraged" job seekers)!
If you counted these people as unemployed members of the workforce, yes the unemployement rate would increase. Of course, it would also mean that President Clinton, never had a 3.9 or 4% unemployment rate, but more like 6 to 7%. |
