At Least 12.5%

clipped from www.qando.net The most recent release of unemployment data has raised some questions, namely, how can we lose 20,000 jobs in the same month that the unemployment rate declined to 9.7%.  The answer is simple: The unemployment rate is essentially a made-up figure.  And I can give you a much more accurate way to measure the unemployment rate. Fortunately, there is a better way to calculate the rate of real unemployment, and the BLS web site conveniently provides you with all the data you need to do it.  From here, we only need three items: The Civilian Noninstitutional Population, the Participation Rate, and the number of Employed. OCT 08: Civilian Noninstitutinal Population: 234,612,000 Participation Rate: 66% Labor Force: 154,843,920 Employed: 145,543,000 Unemployment Rate: 6.0% Jan 10: Civilian Noninstitutinal Population: 236,832,000 Participation Rate: 66% Labor Force: 156,309,120 Employed: 136,809,000 Unemployment Rate: 12.5%