Reply #85: i don't think you understand statistics

[Nederland]

...although you do seem bright enough to pick up on the fact that a 10% unemployment rate does NOT mean that no more than 10% of the working population lost their jobs. Obviously more than 10% of the people could have lost their jobs and, providing that the job losing was spread out over time the rate might never get that high. That is a good observation on your part.

However, I don't think you thought your point completely through. Remember what we are talking about: we are talking about whether losing your job and not finding a new one over 6+ month period was a typical experience for baby boomers over the last year. As I stated earlier, by typical I meant more than 50%. I believe if you think about it, you'll realize that it is statistically impossible for more than 50% of all baby boomers to have lost their jobs and not found new ones for more than 6 months without the official unemployment numbers rising to a level much higher than they did. Work out the math and you'll see I'm right.

Nice try though, you're smarter than most people here.