With all the recent noise about rising U.S. unemployment claims, I wanted to share this post from Barry Ritholz’s Big Picture blog – pretty useful, I thought. He explains the difference between the very outdated U3 unemployment rate and the U6 figure, which accounts for such gray areas as part-time workers who are technically employed, but looking for full-time work or underemployed and making do for now. Of course the implications aren’t too hot…if U3 is weakening, imagine what that means for the much more inclusive U6 – not great news, there.

As for the unemployment jump itself, plenty of interesting takes on that topic. Economist Mark Perry links that jump to the rising minimum wage. Meanwhile, Eddy Elfenbein of Crossing Wall Street crunched a few numbers and realized: this may actually be the biggest jump in unemployment in 28 years, not 22 as the WSJ reports. Eddy, please, back away from the calculator…you’re killing us here!

At any rate, it was a nice nugget to finally grasp properly. Thanks for the succinct explanation, Barry!

[image: Novinky – The News by Johny hanging head down from the tree on flickr]

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Unemployment has not yet reached the point that employees are afraid to miss work, in fact they still do not even bother to call & make an excuse why they are not comming in.  I am talking about entry level jobs that pay $9-12/hr, no HS graduation required. 

Very true, guys. It's hard to summarize the full implications of unemployment figures to the economy, but Corbin2 makes some sharp points. The other impact I'd add to that list is that unemployed folks don't spend as freely, so if that group is big enough it drags down consumer demand.

At any rate it's interesting to realize that these figures are as much art as science...and such a key figure as unemployment has big political implications. I can easily imagine such a number getting fudged where possible for political reasons.