These numbers are simply not an accurate reflection of the problem.
I know many people who have had their hours reduced and a few who have taken crap jobs. They have extended unemployment insurance and people are milking it for all it's worth. With the number of people on government assistance, the number of people in our prisons, all rising steadily, the
real unemployment picture is quite different than what we are generally being told. Once in a while a major media source will talk about the
real numbers, but it usually only once a year for each media outlet. MERRIL LYNCH covered the real numbers on February 9th.
MSN actually covered John Williams from SHadowStats back in 2006...
The numbers behind the lies - MSN Money
A GOOD ARTICLE:
From December 2007, when the recession began, to May of this year, 6.0 million U.S. workers lost their jobs.
Some groups of workers are already facing official unemployment rates in the double digits. As of May, unemployment rates for black, Hispanic, and teenage workers were already 14.9%, 12.7% and 22.7%, respectively. Workers without a high-school diploma confronted a 15.5% unemployment rate, while the unemployment rate for workers with just a high-school degree was 10.0%. Nearly one in five (19.2%) construction workers were unemployed. In Michigan, the hardest hit state, unemployment was at 12.9% in April. Unemployment rates in seven other states were at double-digit levels as well.
Why is the real unemployment rate so much higher than the official, or U-3, rate? First,
forced part-time work has reached its highest level ever, going all the way back to 1956 and including the 1982 recession. In May 2009, 8.8 million workers were forced to work part time for economic reasons. Forced part-timers are concentrated in retail, food services, and construction; about a quarter of them are young workers between 16 and 24. The number of discouraged workers is high today as well. In May, the BLS counted 2.2 million “marginally attached” workers. That matches the highest number since 1994, when the agency introduced this measure.
The Real Unemployment Rate Hits a 68-Year High | Dollars & Sense