The Number of Unemployed People

They love to report the U.S. Unemployment Rate. 

The Unemployment Rate is a number generated by the number of claims for unemployment insurance submitted during a given period of time.

It only tells us how many people lost their jobs recently due to circumstances beyond their control. That is not very useful information.

So I produced a simple graph showing the number of working people (according to the BLS) and the number of people in this country (according to the Census). I produced a third line showing the number of people not working by taking away the number of people working from the number of people.

As you can see since 1998 the number of Unemployed people has been rising at a slight incline.

In that time the number of employed people has been rising at a much faster rate.

Overall the number of unemployed people over the last 11 years has been, roughly speaking, flat.

Given how many people ramble on about how easy it is to find a job and some rail on about how the economy has prevented them from paying the bills this might provide a more middle of the road perspective.

The data shows jobs are moving along as usual. I thought you should know that.

-David Caro-Greene