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Where are these numbers coming from: surely not the same source as ADP, the government and other economic pundits. Somebody is manipulating data to their own liking.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics, sammy. It represents the U-6, which, by definition:
The "U-6 represents total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers." In other words, in reality the U.S. labor market is likely about as bad as Spain in terms of undoctored jobless data.
The manipulation is coming from the WH, to avoid the growing (and self inflicted) tendency towards the "Obama Depression."
Unless my eyes betray me, the curve starts at about 8%. So we can do the math. When we hear about the 5% systemic unemployment rate are we told that it's the U-6 data?
Manipulating data? Gee, that's never happened before. Or has it???