... 2. Unemployment is calculated differently today because we factor out "discouraged workers". See here where Motley Fool put 2009 Unemployment closer to 17.5

... 2. Unemployment is calculated differently today because we factor out "discouraged workers". See here where Motley Fool put 2009 Unemployment closer to 17.5% : http://tinyurl.com/3lappx9 http://tinyurl.com/3lappx9 ... I think he covered this here: "Even by the highest estimates — which include people discouraged from looking for a job, thus not registered as unemployed — the jobless rate reached around 16 to 17 percent. It’s a jobs disaster, to be sure, but not the same scale as the Great Depression."