Depressing. Depressing. I'm sticking with 12%.But what irks me about these unemployment figures is they don't seem to take into account there are certain jobs that pay minimum wage or below.. an adult can't live on such a wage yet it still counts as a "job."

This is a very relevant question in these unfortunate economic times

Very relelvant in our current economic situation

This average seems realistic...currently.

The gov. hasn't accurately reported these figures since the 60's.

Lynn is absolutely right but I would exclude stay at home Moms since they are providing active support for the family bread winner. The others are muchers, mostly and they will always be cronically unemployed. I call them takers.....

Look at the Truely unemployed plus those who have given up...and you will see the reality...

Hank -- I hear that all the time, but really all of that is in the report. The economic situation report is about 25 pages long and has just about every breakdown you could imagine. Unemployed contract employees are reported, a variety of measures of part-time employment are included. Technically self-employed is employed so I'm not sure how its measure would be different from from the other measurements, but when they become unemployed it is measured. While it's not in the employment situation report, about a week later BLS releases the JOT (Job Openings and Turnover) report which includes how many people left their jobs voluntarily, or were laid off.

If all you look at is the topline numbers that you hear on the morning news, yes, that isn't a very useful number. But if you really are interested in this stuff you can find some very compelling information deep in the bowls of these reports that can give you a rather firm grasp on the current situation in the labor markets. BTW, the second differentials are really looking pretty good.

Hank, good info! I had no idea how employment numbers were calculated.

Dave makes a great point. The stats have been skewed and reported at odds with the true measure of unemployment for a very long time. For example, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics measures employment and unemployment (of those over 15 years of age) using two different labor force surveys conducted by the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment figures don't indicate how many are not working for pay but those only actively seeking employment for pay. The statistic does not include volunteer unemployment, contractors looking for work, self-employed, under-employed, etc.

The current methods of measuring unemployment are inaccurate and do not take into account all the factors that lead to unemployment.