There is no truly good way to measure unemployment, which makes it pretty easy for successive administrations to claim that unemployment is consistently improving. But when we do our level best to include all of the unemployed in the numbers, what we learn is that unemployment levels now are higher than they were at the beginning of the Great Recession. That’s the bad news. The good news is that things actually have been getting better over time. In this week’s episode, James and Antony take a look at the actual unemployment numbers to get to the bottom of what they really mean.
Learn more about unemployment with articles:
- Obama Sells Hope over Reality One Last Time
- The Zombie Epidemic of Idle Men
- Promises, Promises
- Obama's "Hope and Change" Now Is Hopelessness and Stagnation
...and research:
- Total Population: All Ages including Armed Forces Overseas
- Working Age Population: Aged 15-64: All Persons for the United States
- Civilian Employment-Population Ratio
- Employment Rate: Aged 25-54: All Persons for the United States
- Employment Rate: Aged 15-64: All Persons for the United States
- Civilian Unemployment Rate
- Civilian Labor Force
- Median Duration of Unemployment
Antony Davies
Dr. Antony Davies is the Milton Friedman Distinguished Fellow at FEE, associate professor of economics at Duquesne University, and co-host of the podcast, Words & Numbers.
James R. Harrigan
James R. Harrigan is Managing Director of the Center for Philosophy of Freedom at the University of Arizona, and the F.A. Hayek Distinguished Fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education. He is also co-host of the Words & Numbers podcast.