Unemployed and Uncounted, but Real

An article at Gallup does a pretty thorough job of debunking official unemployment statistics -- by using a phalanx of facts one could describe as "unemployed" or "underemployed" by most politicians and journalists. I knew about many of these already, but not this one:

There's another reason why the official rate is misleading. Say you're an out-of-work engineer or healthcare worker or construction worker or retail manager: If you perform a minimum of one hour of work in a week and are paid at least $20 -- maybe someone pays you to mow their lawn -- you're not officially counted as unemployed in the much-reported 5.6%. Few Americans know this. [bold added]

And credit author and Gallup CEO Jim Clifton for using another word that, in today's political discourse, oddly wouldn't be counted in the official employment rate if it were a human being: lie.

Clifton ends his piece by citing one statistic I have little trouble believing: "Right now, the U.S. is delivering [jobs] at a staggeringly low rate of 44%, which is the number of full-time jobs as a percent of the adult population..." That's bad, but the most disturbing part of this story to me is that it demonstrates a remarkable lack of demand for facts by many of those who wish to remain "informed", and by many of those who elect our politicians.

-- CAV

Updates

Today: Added "many of" twice to second sentence.