[DoodleDawg]

They completely cook the books.

I think it's Trump that is cooking the books on this one. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics there are 261 million people in this country over the age of 16 who are not in the military and not institutionalized. Of those, 157 million are employed. So the difference between the two is where the 94 million figure comes from; 94 million people over 16 who are not in the military or an institution and who are not employed. About 37%. Now of that 94 million, how many are between 16 and 18 and still in high school? How many are between 18 and 22 and in college? How many are over 62 and are retired? How many are out of the work force by choice; stay-at-home moms and the like? How many are medically unable to work? Until you factor those in then how can Trump or you or anyone say the unemployment rate is 40%?

[central_va]

Another hit post by the DoodleDawg poop.

[Paul R.]

A lot of the categories you “discount” are there in big numbers precisely because the employment & wage situation IS so bad. “Might as well go back to school / stay in college / retire / “stay home” / see if I can get by on disability / etc. when the opportunities are so cr***y”, and the support system so benevolent.

Also, look at that 157 million “employed” a little harder. MANY are underemployed, though technically employed, and beyond that, wages for most are performing very badly.

Again I reference Kabar’s posts of the data (maybe he’ll repeat some here.)

[M. Thatcher]

how can Trump or you or anyone say the unemployment rate is 40%?

Trump did not make it up. He has been referencing this July 1 analysis since he entered the race:

David Stockman Says Unemployment Is Really 42.9 Percent

[Captain Peter Blood]

May suggest you not count of the BLS, they have lied consistently.
So I refer you to John Williams site: http://www.shadowstats.com/

There is plenty of information there.

[zek157]

Trump is closer than official numbers from BLS.

http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data

[itsahoot]

Until you factor those in then how can Trump or you or anyone say the unemployment rate is 40%?

325 million people here according to Census. 94 million are not working. That is near 30% if everyone of the 325 million were employable.

[piytar]

Trump merely said that is the highest number he has heard from an economist. He also said the official number is cooked.

How is that “cooking the books”?!

[Fresh Wind]

Of those, 157 million are employed.

Nope. Look here. This shows the labor force as about 157 million.

What you need to understand is what they mean by "labor force". They define that term as the total of employed and unemployed persons.

[MichaelCorleone]

“Until you factor those in then how can Trump or you or anyone say the unemployment rate is 40%?”

I guess you’ll have to ask the economists who said that.

For the record, Donald Trump did not crunch the numbers himself - by his own admission he got that from (presumably educated) economists.

Further, he said that economists put the number at 20%, 32%...some as high as 42%. He also didn’t leave anyone with the impression 40% was the consensus.

[Fresh Wind]

By the way, 261 minus 157 is 104, not 94.

[kabar]

The 157,065,000 who participated in the labor force equaled only 62.6 percent of the 251,096,000 civilian noninstitutional population -- the same as it was in July and June. Not since October 1977, when the participation rate dropped to 62.4, has the percentage been this low.

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) ticked up in August to 6,483,000, 158,000 more than the 6,325,000 recorded in July. These individuals, who would have preferred full-time employment, were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.

Labor Particpation rate

In December 2014 there were 18 million immigrants (legal and illegal) living in the country who had arrived since January 2000.2 But job growth over this period was just 9.3 million — half of new immigration

A record 94,031,000 Americans were not in the American labor force last month -- 261,000 more than July -- and the labor force participation rate stayed stuck at 62.6 percent, a 38-year low, for a third straight month in August, the Labor Department reported on Friday, as the nation heads into the Labor Day weekend.

In January 1948 -- the first year the data was recorded -- 88.7 percent of men, aged 20 and older, were participating in the U.S. labor force. The rate first dipped below 80 percent in November 1975 (79.9%), spiraling steadily downward through August 2015, when 71.5 percent of men 20 and older were participating in the labor force.

[moehoward]

"Until you factor those in then how can Trump or you or anyone say the unemployment rate is 40%? "

Is he speaking for the nation as a whole, or a certain demographic in a specific state/county/city ? I've read headlines here at FR which allude to similar numbers.

That's one of the problems with Trump speak and the "hurricane of words" referenced in the 60 minutes interview. He'll toss out a perfectly legitimate factoid but it may not be in correct context.

[PLMerite]

“I think it’s Trump that is cooking the books on this one.”

Okay, so what do *you* think the real unemployment rate is, the 5.whatever% figure the gov’t is pushing or something else?