The U3 number has been a farce since the way it was calculated was changed during (I think) the Clinton administration. I never look at it any more. I always look at the U6 number, which hasn't gone below 12% since the 2001.

Interesting graph there... my first question was, 'what happened in the particular years that CAUSED the curve to top off and then, a decade or so later, precipitously change to a steep downslope?

If you don't ask "what changed?" you're not going to EVER discover any root cause. Annotate the curve with landmark elections and changes in laws and taxes and see if there's any pattern or correlation.

yessir; that's the inverse slavery of the haves
taking care of the have-nots, in rather grand
style, sometimes. -- j

Indeed! The labor force participation rate is one of the fudge factors. Don't like the unemployment rate? Change the fudge factor!

Look at the numbers in the link below. Depressing.

http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS113000...

I did a graph (with US Dept of Labor statistics) about two years ago, it showed 2 statistics on the same graph:
1) # (millions) not working
2) "unemployment" rate.

#1 kept going up and never went down
#2 went up for a while for about 2 years, then tapered off, then went down.

I wonder how that happened? Hm... Maybe because "unemployment" rate is a farce.

While government regulations and practices have been a real deterrent to economy growth, facts are baby boomers are retiring and will continue to do so steadily over the next ten, fifteen, years. It will only get worse. By 2030 there is expected to be more people over the age of 65 in the population than people under the age of fifteen.

Government checks... don't get me started. ;-)

That's OUR money... the money that you and I labored to earn, and our Federal Government, who has nothing but our best interests in mind (sarcasm=on) has decided that these people can spend those monies more intelligently than we, the producers.

YEP!!! That is the way Nancy Pelosi looks at it...

You know as well as I do that the left does not look at it this way... They just want to tax us to death!!! Just like their pushing for the $15.00 minimum wage, who cares if our costs go up 38%.

This is what socialism gets you.

Well said.

Pretty shortly our friend who thinks that the economy is cooking along great will show up to tell us how wrong we are. That these 69 million who are unemployed or not looking for work are really "contributing" by all those government checks they spend each month.

Oh yeah, if the gubermeant really gave a damn about getting as much revenue from taxes as they claim to, they'd lighten up, way up on the corporate tax rate and get at least half those people back to work with meaningful income. Actions speak louder than cheap words.

I know. This is no accident either: it totally by design and that's what I find to be so disgusting. Yeah, those self-proclaimed "elites" really are looking out for our collective best interests. I say 'collective' because that's what they are all about. The only time "individualism" is allowed or tolerated is when it is about THEIR bottom line. But whenever it's about OUR individualism, oh no, no, no. Can't have that, why that's a sin...right next to "competition" ~ so saith John D Rockefeller, Sr.

Now compare this number to our unemployment statistics (U3 through U6). Apparently we have about 1/3 of our population in retirement. <cough>

Hmmm. The results just aren't adding up. Remember the BS that was said about what would happen if the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 wasn't passed? Oh, that's right, the MSM has a memory span of about 10 minutes...they wouldn't know. But you and I and everyone else here knows better.