Reply #13: Apples to oranges. The states compute in a different way and lag the Federal #s

[jpljr77]

Also, the Department of Labor releases their "alternative" measures of unemployment each month along with the headline number.

For December, the official unemployment rate was 7.2%. When discouraged workers and other "marginally attached" workers -- i.e., those that have given up looking but want to work, and don't qualify to be included in the headline number -- are included, the rate goes to 8.3%.

When you take that number and add workers that are forced to work part time but want full time work, the number is a very firghtening 13.5%.

Economists generally agree that the "real" unemployment rate is somewhere between those last two measures, in other words, between 8.3% and 13.5%. Bad times.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t12.htm