Unemployment Figures

Chris Bowers has a brief rundown on the smoke that is being passed off as data in the unemployment debate. The upshot is that the rate that best measures the human impact bottomed at 7% just before 2001. During that year it rose to 9.5%. Since it has been as high as 10.2% in 2003 and has come back down to 9.5% in 2004.

"Democrats and Republicans alike need to come clean about how unemployment is measured in this country. They need to come clean not for the sake of the country, but for their own sake. You can't fool people when it comes to this stuff. However, if you are willing to delude yourself into believing things are really much better than they are, you might be surprised when the angry millions who you have moved out of poverty or into a job purely by abstraction kick your sorry ass out of office on election day. "