The unemployment rate myth

For those who took a basic high school economics and/or government course this may not be a myth to you. But, American's continue to be daft because the press reports crap as if it's meaningful without some context.

The nation's unemployment rate is measured by the number of people wanting employment and have employment, and those who do not have employment but are wanting it.

If say, Johnny, is an unemployed factory worker of 20 years and he gets laid off by his company shifting jobs overseas, he usually starts his bleak future by heading to the unemployment line. He tries to find a job for say, 6 months, and has found there are literally no jobs to be had. So, he stops looking for a job and just begins collecting a check from some federal institution.

The minute Johnny stops looking for a job, he is technically, no longer considered to be a member of the unemployed as the word unemployed is defined in those numbers. To be considered unemployed means you have to be actively looking for a job, not merely sitting at home and refusing to find a job by choice.

By choosing not to actively look for a job because any job you can get pays you less than the government benefit check you can get, or simply because you wish to not work at McDonald's for $2 an hour...you become a part of the category I can't remember the term for.

Therefore, when you look at the unemployment rate being around roughly 3.5%-4% as being good, it never tells the whole picture. There are those who, again, chose not to look for a job, that if you counted would send the unemployment rate up significantly. How many of our men and women soldiers who have been discharged from the military due to combat wounds (eg: blown off limbs) are likely actively seeking a new job? Not a lot I'd venture, as they are simply trying to get their lives in some reasonable order.

Not to mention those who are underemployed.

Making $2 per hour a McDonald's would technically make you unemployed, but you are likely not to have enough cash to live on, yet your plight is not reported on because the media obsesses moronically over the unemployment rate. Thus, ignoring the real problems that the rate never fully shows or allows to be explained without some serious verb age, which takes up precious seconds.

But, at least the media has begun within the recent years, noting the joblessness rate, which I wish they would do and leave the unemployment rate out of the whole thing because American's are somehow trained on that number that has become virtually meaningless.