The Unemployment Rate in the United States is Deceiving

by Bob Branco

I really believe that when the United States reports the unemployment rate, the figures are very deceiving. There are a lot of people who are of working age that the statistic doesn’t take into consideration. From what I learned, if a person is out of work long enough where he no longer receives unemployment benefits, then he is no longer counted. As far as I’m concerned, it shouldn’t matter how long a person is out of work or if he is still collecting benefits. He is still out of work. Therefore, he is part of the “Unemployment Rate”.

I often wonder if our Government produces such a low unemployment rate just to make us look good. If their attempt to make us look good sets us up to fail, then why make the attempt? If we all knew the real unemployment rate in this country which includes everyone of working age without a job, wouldn’t there be more attention paid to the problem?

In my city, there are many people hanging around during the day who aren’t at work. They are either collecting Welfare, doing drugs, going to food pantries, panhandling, etc. Yet our Mayor tells us that the city’s unemployment rate is 3.7 percent. No way do I believe it. If I interview 100 people of working age in my city, I can almost guarantee you that I will find more than 3 of them out of work. In fact, I would predict that 25 out of 100 aren’t working. Again, let me stress that I am only talking about people of working age, not the elderly, not those in the Military, not young kids, not those with very severe ailments, and not illegal immigrants. Everyone else is either working or not working, and the unemployment rate should be calculated based on everyone else.

I believe our Government should take a good look into the process by which they report this statistic. Honesty is always the best policy.