[SkyPilot]

I suspect the actual rate is much higher than 9.8%

The real unemployment rate is probably around 22.5% or 23%.

This is very significant. The "official" unemployment uses U3 data, which is totally wrong. If they used the same criteria they used during the Great Depression (when unemployment was 25%), and compared the same numbers today, the public would be told the truth - we are in a Depression.

[olrtex]

I think you are overstating the bad news, which need not be overstated to be really bad.

The SGS Alternate, which is the only number that approaches your 22.5% unemployment, includes “SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers.” So, there is little or no data to support the addition to the U-6 number. More importantly, it is not at all clear that “long-term discouraged workers” means much more than slackers who have found a way to live without working. Such folks may be unproductive and may even be leeches, but not because of the economy.

I suggest sticking with the U-6 number. It is horrible, and using it avoids the plausible charge of overstating unemployment for political purposes. No exaggeration is needed to demonstrate that Obama is a Category 5 disaster.

[Red in Blue PA]

This is very significant. The "official" unemployment uses U3 data, which is totally wrong. If they used the same criteria they used during the Great Depression (when unemployment was 25%), and compared the same numbers today, the public would be told the truth - we are in a Depression.

Indeed.

The only difference is that the MSM cannot report the real number of jobless because there are no soup lines today.....UB are the modern equivalent of the soup lines.