What the Unemployment Numbers Don't Say

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The unemployment numbers (PDF) released today show that the end of summer has not brought us the end of the recession. Headline numbers show the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate to be 9.7 percent, or 14.9 million people. That’s 5.4 million more people than a year ago—and still growing.
Those numbers are bad enough, but, as FLYP reported earlier this year, the real impact of the recession is even worse if you add the unemployed workers who are either forced to work part time or who have given up looking in this increasingly jobless economy. All together, that means almost 26 million people, or 16.5 percent of the workforce is unemployed or underemployed.
No wonder the “green shoots” of the supposed economic recovery have withered in the summertime heat.