Our news media give us only one measure of unemployment. Officially,
the Department of Labor calls this U3— their third way of measuring
unemployment. It is the total number of people (A) working, or (B) seeking work—
called the labor force— and measuring the percentage of job seekers relative to
this overall labor force.
There are
other measures of unemployment. One is U6. It includes “marginally
attached” workers, plus part-time workers.
In U3, they count the same as someone working their dream full-time job.
U6 counts someone is working a short gig more like a job seeker than a fully attached worker.
In U3, they count the same as someone working their dream full-time job.
U6 counts someone is working a short gig more like a job seeker than a fully attached worker.
The May
2019 figure for U6 was 7.1%, while U3 was 3.6%. See this: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm.
Want a concrete example of a U6 worker?
The New York Times reports on older
workers today, noting:
More than
half of workers over 50 lose longtime jobs before they are ready to retire,
according to a recent analysis by the Urban Institute and ProPublica. Of
those, nine out of 10 never recover their previous earning power. Some are able
to find only piecemeal or gig work.
***
(The ProPublica
report is compelling. For more, read: https://www.propublica.org/article/older-workers-united-states-pushed-out-of-work-forced-retirement.)
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