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Supposed to, but doesn't. The U6 rate includes two new things: part-time workers, and a very strangely-defined category: people who are NOT working at ALL, AND
by phendrenad2 1y ago
Supposed to, but doesn't. The U6 rate includes two new things: part-time workers, and a very strangely-defined category: people who are NOT working at ALL, AND were looking for work previously, AND have stopped looking for 4+ weeks.
It doesn't capture the common on-the-street definition of the word "underemployment", such as a tech worker flipping burgers at mcdonald's.
Perhaps that category is simply to hard or expensive to measure, or it's specifically being avoided. Either/or really.
- wnc3141 1y agothe only signal I can think of is returns on student debt to measure "employment quality" - i.e how well is my education capital being deployed, but any realistic evaluation of the labor market will be complex and include qualitative data.
- pkaye 1y agoSeems like its studied and there are many types of underemployment and they each have difference causes. Its probably tracked somewhere by economists. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underemployment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underemployment
- phendrenad2 1y agoHeh, "it's probably tracked somewhere by economists". The more I learn about economics as a "science" the more I balk at the idea of giving them the benefit of the doubt, which people seem really willing to do for some reason. I know, it's scary that the economy might be a complex system that nobody understands, and it's easier to have "faith" that there is some shadowy economic cabal of god-kings who are keeping a watchful eye on it. But,.. yeah, that doesn't seem to be true, honestly.