[FreeAtlanta]

I understand what you are saying, but the government is using this as a baseline to show unemployment. How did the 25% of the depression get calculated and why is the government not using that method today?

Unfortunately, this particular bls.gov data set only goes back to 1948. Still, it shows no crazy lying chicanery like what the lefties are trying to pull starting in 2008.

The data says "Civilian labor force" so, call me a moron, but to me that means all people who can work. BTW, this graph is in thousands, so basically, b>the missing population - extrapolating the graph - is about 30 million people.

[null and void]

the missing population - extrapolating the graph - is about 30 million people.

Oddly enough, this number is roughly the same as the number of illegal aliens that were said to be in this country at the start of the Obama regime...

[PghBaldy]

You are right about the lie in using this as a baseline in UE. Really, they should use another means to get at that, as many of the people who are gone are truly unemployed.

[PghBaldy]

OK- the earliest I can easily find are for 1940 figures of Civilian Labor Force

http://www.nber.org/databases/macrohistory/contents/chapter08.html

(I think there are ealier figures, perhaps the Federal Reserve of St Louis has them - they have MANY older docs)

[PghBaldy]

1st column YEAR
2nd column TOTAL LABOR FORCE (in thousands);
3rd column TOTAL CIVILIAN LABOR FORCE (in thousands)

1929 49,440 49,180
1930 50,080 49,820
1931 50,680 50,420
1932 51,250 51,000
1933 51,840 51,590

1934 52,490 52,230
1935 53,140 52,870
1936 53,740 53,440
1937 54,320 54,000
1938 54,950 54,610

1939 55,600 55,230
1940 56,180 55,640
1941 57,530 55,910

p24 of 134 fraser.stlouisfed.org/docs/publications/employment/1960s/empl_051966.pdf