To: sea_biscuit who wrote (484540 ) 10/31/2003 2:16:18 PM From: Original Mad Dog Read Replies (1) | Respond to The only number that matters is how many people are unemployed -- REALLY unemployed, that is (the government statistics don't count people who are unemployed for more than a year, so that in a long spell where people keep losing jobs, REAL unemployment may be 15-20 percent while the government statistics might show only 5 or 6 percent bea.doc.gov REAL unemployment may be 15-20 percent while the government statistics might show only 5 or 6 percent bls.gov employed people is up, from 136,891,000 in 2000 to 137,573,000 in September 2003. Due to the increase in the overall size of the labor force, however, the number of unemployed people is also up, from 5,692,000 in 2000 to 8,973,000 in Sept. 2003:Now, if huge numbers of people, to the extent of 15 to 20 percent of the population, had given up looking for work since 2000, then the total number of people in the workforce would be down and the total number of employed people would be down. But they're not. So, if those 15 to 20 percent of the people actually exist, they didn't have jobs when Clinton was President either. bea.doc.gov (Bureau of Economic Analysis)(see Table 1) bea.doc.gov .
