What is the unemployment? It is hard to say. If you have stopped looking for employment then the US Department of Labor stops counting you. The unemployment rate is determined by deviding the unemployed by the number that are considered employed. Is this an accurate way to tabulate those who are unemplyed?
Yahoo! News
Unemployment fell to a five-year low of 6.7 percent in December, yet employers added just 74,000 new jobs during the month — the lowest monthly payroll increase in nearly three years.
So how does the "unemployment" number fall despite such weak job growth?
In simple terms, the U.S. Department of Labor stops counting people who have stopped looking for work. The "labor force," as defined by the department, fell from 155.3 million in November to 154.9. This decrease of 400,000 accounts for nearly the entire drop in unemployment — from 7 percent in November to 6.7 in December.
How the department calculates unemployment is rather simple: It takes the number of unemployed and divides it by the number of people it considers in the labor force. But does this provide an accurate account of how many people are really unemployed? Not really.
Full story: Yahoo! News
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