I call BULLSHIT on the unemployment percentage here in the US.

[NoMoreRepugs]

Every statistic I can find says the US workforce in 2020 is 165,000,000 or thereabouts. 36 million workers have filed for unemployment and millions more are still trying. Millions of kids just graduated high school and college, plus the unemployed that were there when the shutdowns began. Somehow that translates into 14.7% unemployment???

I understand some workers have returned to their jobs - but I still call BULLSHIT.

20-25%+ seems to be more in the realm of reality.

[Cicada]

1. Sounds like you prefer the u6 definition, which in April was 23%

There are different ways to measure unemployment. Your comments are better addressed by the method the department of labor calls u6. DOL publishes the numbers for several different definitions each month. The press focuses on one method but they could focus on other methods if they wanted to.

[empedocles]

4. 'Discouraged from work for more than 6 months'? [ not counted]

[jimfields33]

2. 14 percent is still bad and out of 320 million that's equals 40 million out of work which is

About right.

[uponit7771]

3. The BLS did not count "furloughed" workers and its 19.7%

https://www.sonecon.com/the-official-unemployment-numbers-are-technically-fake-news/

One major issue involves how the Census survey and BLS analysts count people who were furloughed from their jobs in April. Normally, the BLS rules say that anyone laid off temporarily does not count as unemployed. In March, BLS modified that rule by holding that individuals working for a business that was closed by the pandemic could be counted as either on temporary furlough or unemployed. Workers are therefore categorized based on how they described their work situation to the Census surveyors. Publicly, BLS would like to have it both ways: It reported that 18,063,000 Americans were “unemployed on temporary layoff” in April without saying how many of them it counted as unemployed.

[Make7]

5. The official BLS number is still from mid-April data. U3 is higher, but data for May won't be released until June 5th. ( n/t )

[lettucebe]

6. They don't count those who cannot collect unemployment

at least that's my belief; these statistics are based on unemployment claims. Meaning they've always vastly underestimated the actual number.