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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: regli who wrote (65722)	7/10/2006 12:19:48 PM
From: redfrecknj	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 110194

Here's the link: bls.gov In U6 column, check "Seasonally Adjusted" then "Retrieve Data" Although one month does not make a trend, there was clearly a significant rise in unemployment last month which did not show up in the headline figure. The BLS stopped counting as unemployed workers who have been out of work so long that they have run out of unemployment benefits and are considered to have stopped actively looking for work, despite the fact that those workers are ready and willing to work. Before the Carter Administration, those long-term unemployed were counted in the headline figure -- and it became an embarassment to the Carter Administration when unemployment soared due to the Oil Crisis and rolling recessions. Once they removed these "discouraged" workers from the count, succeeding administrations found that this statistical "trick" worked very well and it has been retained ever since then. That's why the headline figure of 4.6% unemployed is not a statistic which is comparable to the levels of unemployment before the mid-'Seventies. Back in the 'Sixties, economists believed that 6% was an absolute floor below which the employment rate could not fall.