3 ms·
Sure. But the press will report the absolute numbers when and in whatever way it benefits each publication's political wing. This is done under terms like "unem
by macinjosh 4y ago
Sure. But the press will report the absolute numbers when and in whatever way it benefits each publication's political wing. This is done under terms like "unemployment rate" which every reasonable person takes to mean that it includes _all_ unemployed people. So sure, the government bureaucracy is correctly doing its bureaucratic job but politicians, press, and pundits abuse the complicated data by presenting it in deceptively vague terms.
- alistairSH 4y agoThe press almost always uses U-3, which is the government's official unemployment rate. There's nothing vague about it. BLS is clear about what each category includes. The only confusion is caused by a certain subpopulation who likes to toss out U-6 as some sort of "gotcha!" whenever unemployment makes the news.
- macinjosh 4y agoNext time you are on the street ask some random passersby what the difference between the U-3 unemployment rate and the U-6 unemployment rate. You're gonna get a bunch of blank stares unless you are on the campus of an economics college.
- alistairSH 4y agoRandom passersby is a really low bar. Many won't be able to place nations on a map or name the Speaker of the House either. Which is why throwing out U-6 as a "gotcha!" is so dangerous - somebody who doesn't know better might believe the government is trying to hide something.