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Economy
Real US unemployment rate at 16 pct: Fed official
2009-08-27
Via InstaPundit
The real US unemployment rate is 16 percent if persons who have dropped out of the labor pool and those working less than they would like are counted, a Federal Reserve official said Wednesday.

"If one considers the people who would like a job but have stopped looking -- so-called discouraged workers -- and those who are working fewer hours than they want, the unemployment rate would move from the official 9.4 percent to 16 percent, said Atlanta Fed chief Dennis Lockhart.
The discussion for a number of decades has been which should be reported: only those registering for unemployment benefits (a hard number based on registrations), or also those who have stopped looking altogether or accepted underemployment (a soft number based on extrapolation from interviews and surveys). In our society hard numbers are generally the first choice. Mr. Lockhart could have put his estimate in perspective by offering comparable numbers for unemployment numbers in 2007, for example, before the real estate crash.
He underscored that he was expressing his own views, which did "do not necessarily reflect those of my colleagues on the Federal Open Market Committee," the policy-setting body of the central bank.
...
Lockhart noted that construction and manufacturing had been particularly hard hit in the recession that began in December 2007 and predicted some jobs were gone for good.

Prior to the recession, he said, construction and manufacturing combined accounted for slightly more than 15 percent of employment. But during the recession, their job losses made up more than 40 percent of all US job losses. "In my view, it is unlikely that we will see a return of jobs lost in certain sectors, such as manufacturing," he said.
Posted by:ed

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