Yves here. While quite a few economists have thrown cold water on the rosy message of the latest drop of the headline unemployment stat to below 4%, this Real News Network interview with Robert Pollin of PERI does the useful service of providing a more realistic estimate.Naked Capitalism
Official Unemployment Is at 3.9%? Economist Robert Pollin Says It Is More Like 12%
Yves Smith
“Unemployment is below 4 percent!”
ReplyDeleteReally? What do you mean by “employment”?
It seems to me that much of the controversy about official “employment” figures arises from a failure to clearly define “employment.”
If “employment” includes working two hours a day for less than the federal minimum wage, or includes living in a tent while hustling to scrounge a few pennies each day, then yes, unemployment is probably low.
Even the BLS's own alternative number (U-6) - based on the same bullshit data and restrictive definitions - is more than double that.
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