...rate of 4.5% to 5.5% is actually employees in "transition" from one job to their next job and therefore regard that number as nor really unemployment. That of course is total bullshit. Nobody who works and has bills to pay and families to support ever wants to go for any period of time without a paycheck. The transitional figure would be less than 1.0% and more likely around 0.5%. Then you have discouraged workers who drop out of the job market, that is they are forced out by the unemployment office and no longer get counted in the employment statistics. BushCo has done an excellent job of hiding these numbers, so my guess would be this Bush economy has a real unemployment rate in the range of 8.0% to 10%, with an additional qualified legal American workforce of another 10.0% adults who want to work but feel they would not be able to if they actively went looking because the jobs are not where they are and the pay rates are well below what they would be willing to work for and what they are qualified for, plus these potential workers want to have jobs that are relatively long term to make it worth coming back into the work force.
Employment status, sex, and age
May May
2006 2007
TOTAL Men and Women 16 and older
Civilian noninstitutional population......... 228,428 231,480
Civilian labor force.............................. 150,696 152,762
Participation rate..................................... 66.0% 66.0%
Employed.......................................... 144,041 145,943
Employment-population ratio..................... 63.1% 63.0%
Unemployed........................................... 6,655 6,819
Unemployment rate................................... 4.4% 4.5%
Not in labor force.................................. 77,732 78,718
Persons who currently want a job................. 5,201 4,928
Discouraged worker rate........................... 6.7% 6.3%
<link>
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t01.htm