pinqy
Gold Member
dude, are you on the right? unemployed is unemployed, in any at-will employment State. underemployment is a different Thing.and what should the "actual" rate of unemployment be.. do we count people who don't want to work as unemployed? Do we count homemakers? Do we count drug dealers and other workers who work under the table? Do we count students? What if they don't want to work because we decided to give them disability or other forms of welfare? What if they don't want to work because we off-shored their work? What if they don't want to work because they are retiring early? What if they want to work but their unemployment benefits have run out and there are no jobs for their skill where they are looking? What if they want to work but are temporarily disabled and do not qualify for disability?There should only be one unemployment rate; the actual rate of unemployment. Discouraged workers are not employed or they would be counted as employed labor.
Huh? How is it illogical to be unemployed?True. However trying to make logic out of unemployment is not an easy task. This is mostly because the act of being un-employed is itself illogical.Exactly, and this is why we have different measures. We can use the measure that best fits what we are trying to define.For example, you might say unemployment is the number of adults who do not have full time jobs. Or you could say unemployment is the number of adults between the age of 25 and 65 who do not have jobs. Or you could say unemployment is the number of employable adults between the age of 25 and 65 who do not have full time jobs. OR.... or ... or...
Or alternately we can do like Special EdBaiamonte and use whatever one we think will score points in a political argument instead of what is logical.
How are you defining unemployed? None of those you mention are usually considered unemployed.One starts to make excuses / explanations for why someone is unemployed and then extrapolate that because of this or that excuse there must be millions like that person. For example, went back to school, is working under the table, is under employed, is "discouraged," is laid off, is a homemaker now, ...
Why do you think anyone is making assumptions about why people are underemployed. I'm not getting your point. Can you give a specific example?The assumptions we make for "why" people are unemployed, lead to assumptions on what unemployment means. But they are just assumptions.