4 ms·

> With unemployment this low there are plenty of entry level jobs people can get into in every city in the country. I live in Seattle and I see people out beggi

by darawk 8y ago

> With unemployment this low there are plenty of entry level jobs people can get into in every city in the country. I live in Seattle and I see people out begging to give people entry level/beginner jobs by the light rail stations and all around the city, but homelessness is still on the rise. If that were actually true, then there wouldn't be a homeless problem. The unemployment rate doesn't count these people. The unemployment rate only counts people who are 'actively looking' for a new job. People who aren't looking at all don't show up in the statistics. > Bussing them elsewhere doesn't help when they still don't have a home, a bathroom/shower, clean clothes, food, etc. Let's be careful about the conjugation of that verb. The city is not bussing them anywhere. The city is offering them free bus tickets, if they believe they will be happier elsewhere. If they want to stay, they stay. If they want to leave, they leave. > Bussing them out is just an idea done by the rich so they don't have to see the homeless any longer. It's really not. They're not being forced out. They're just being given free tickets if they want them.

adventured 8y ago
> The unemployment rate only counts people who are 'actively looking' for a new job. People who aren't looking at all don't show up in the statistics. That's entirely incorrect. We track all of these layers in fact. We have the labor force participation rate, which is available further separated out into groups, such as by age or race. We track the employment to population ratio. We have the U3, U5, U6 unemployment statistics, which track labor based on various conditions, whether full-time, part-time, discouraged, etc. We track how many people total are employed full-time or part-time. We know how many hours they're working. We track multiple job holders. We track how many people are not in the labor force. We track the flow of labor in and out of the labor force. And we track all of these statistics for different age groups, men & women, races, etc. For one big example, the prime working age 25-54 civilian labor force participation rate. Considered a critical measure of labor force health. It bottomed out at 80.6% in 2015 and has since climbed back to 82.3% as of October, slightly below where it was in 2004-05. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS11300060 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS11300060
- darawk 8y ago
  > That's entirely incorrect. We track all of these layers in fact. No....it is entirely correct. The unemployment rate that was quoted was exactly as I described. I didn't say the other statistics weren't tracked, I said the statistic quoted above, and the thing commonly referred to as "the unemployment rate" does not count it.
  - shard972 8y ago
    Stop being obtuse, it's not like the first guy specifically said "The U3 unemployment rate". The point he was making though can be made even if the OP was referencing U3 which is if the fundamentals are looking better for employees (Which can be inferred from improving U3 numbers) then why are we seeing higher homelessness?
    - darawk 8y ago
      > Stop being obtuse, it's not like the first guy specifically said "The U3 unemployment rate". Are you seriously trying to insist that he could possibly have meant anything other than U3? The common meaning of 'unemployment rate' is U3. Google 'current unemployment rate' right now, and Google will tell you 3.7. Aka U3. > The point he was making though can be made even if the OP was referencing U3 which is if the fundamentals are looking better for employees (Which can be inferred from improving U3 numbers) then why are we seeing higher homelessness? Because the population looking for work and the population falling into homelessness are not the same population! Which is exactly the point I was making about U3. There is a massive population that has left the workforce completely, many of them are subsisting on disability or some other unknown way. It is highly likely that those people are the ones primarily falling into homelessness.
  - maxerickson 8y ago
    You said "People who aren't looking at all don't show up in the statistics." Why would a reasonable reader assume that "statistics" means "specifically U3 unemployment"?

by darawk 8y ago

adventured 8y ago

> The unemployment rate only counts people who are 'actively looking' for a new job. People who aren't looking at all don't show up in the statistics. That's entirely incorrect. We track all of these layers in fact. We have the labor force participation rate, which is available further separated out into groups, such as by age or race. We track the employment to population ratio. We have the U3, U5, U6 unemployment statistics, which track labor based on various conditions, whether full-time, part-time, discouraged, etc. We track how many people total are employed full-time or part-time. We know how many hours they're working. We track multiple job holders. We track how many people are not in the labor force. We track the flow of labor in and out of the labor force. And we track all of these statistics for different age groups, men & women, races, etc. For one big example, the prime working age 25-54 civilian labor force participation rate. Considered a critical measure of labor force health. It bottomed out at 80.6% in 2015 and has since climbed back to 82.3% as of October, slightly below where it was in 2004-05. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS11300060 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS11300060

darawk 8y ago
> That's entirely incorrect. We track all of these layers in fact. No....it is entirely correct. The unemployment rate that was quoted was exactly as I described. I didn't say the other statistics weren't tracked, I said the statistic quoted above, and the thing commonly referred to as "the unemployment rate" does not count it.
- shard972 8y ago
  Stop being obtuse, it's not like the first guy specifically said "The U3 unemployment rate". The point he was making though can be made even if the OP was referencing U3 which is if the fundamentals are looking better for employees (Which can be inferred from improving U3 numbers) then why are we seeing higher homelessness?
  - darawk 8y ago
    > Stop being obtuse, it's not like the first guy specifically said "The U3 unemployment rate". Are you seriously trying to insist that he could possibly have meant anything other than U3? The common meaning of 'unemployment rate' is U3. Google 'current unemployment rate' right now, and Google will tell you 3.7. Aka U3. > The point he was making though can be made even if the OP was referencing U3 which is if the fundamentals are looking better for employees (Which can be inferred from improving U3 numbers) then why are we seeing higher homelessness? Because the population looking for work and the population falling into homelessness are not the same population! Which is exactly the point I was making about U3. There is a massive population that has left the workforce completely, many of them are subsisting on disability or some other unknown way. It is highly likely that those people are the ones primarily falling into homelessness.
- maxerickson 8y ago
  You said "People who aren't looking at all don't show up in the statistics." Why would a reasonable reader assume that "statistics" means "specifically U3 unemployment"?