Three million long-term unemployed people not being counted by the Labor Department

[Amerigo Vespucci]

U.S. nonfarm payrolls grew by 243,000 jobs in January, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday, up from a revised 203,000 jobs in December.

***

Still, some perspective is in order: Total nonfarm payroll employment now stands at 132.4 million jobs, after some benchmark revisions, or about 5.6 million jobs lower than the 138 million at the peak in January 2008.

In other words, it will take many more months of this sort of job growth just to get employment back to where it was four years ago.

A recent study by Washington, D.C. consulting firm Hamilton Place Strategies estimates that there may be three million long-term unemployed people who are currently not being counted by the Labor Department because they have simply given up looking for work. Signs of an improving job market might bring them back to the labor force, which would push the unemployment rate higher.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/03/us-economy-adds-tktk-jobs_n_1252209.html

[uponit7771]

1. "..that there MAY BE 3 million long-term unemployed..." come on, this gets old

[Amerigo Vespucci]

3. It's all one big "may be"

There "may be" a legitimate 8.3 Percent unemployment rate.

There "may be" 3 million long-term unemployed.

We're handed numbers and we believe them, or we don't.

[surfdog]

2. Yawn , right on time

[Safetykitten]

4. I think that number is larger. But let's not talk about that.

[City Lights]

5. It's only cool to discuss this when a GOPer is in office.

Shhhhhh...

[surfdog]

8. Wrong

It's only cool to discuss it the day the job numbers are released

Like clockwork

[Enrique]

9. well this information is in the jobs report

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

In January, 2.8 million persons were marginally attached to the labor
force, essentially unchanged from a year earlier. (The data are not
seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force,
wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime
in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because
they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.
(See table A-16.)

Among the marginally attached, there were 1.1 million discouraged
workers in January, little different from a year earlier. (The data
are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not
currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available
for them. The remaining 1.7 million persons marginally attached to the
labor force in January had not searched for work in the 4 weeks
preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family
responsibilities. (See table A-16.)

[NNN0LHI]

6. This comes from Deputy Assistant and Deputy Press Secretary to former President George W. Bush

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Fratto

Salvatore Antonio "Tony" Fratto (born June 27, 1966) was Deputy Assistant and Deputy Press Secretary to former United States President George W. Bush.

Tony Fratto is managing partner at Hamilton Place Strategies, a strategic communications and crisis management consultancy based in Washington, DC. He is also an on-air contributor on the CNBC Business News Network, addressing current economic policy issues.

Fratto served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Press Secretary to President George W. Bush from September 2006 to January 2009. In this role Fratto served as the White House’s lead spokesman and communications advisor on a broad range policy issues in support of President Bush, working directly with the President and senior White House officials, and speaking for the White House to the national press corps from the White House podium and in on-camera interviews.

Fratto represented the Bush Administration on international and domestic economic policy -- including international trade; financial markets; tax policy; banking; and international development. He also served as the White House’s lead spokesman on legal issues, Supreme Court cases, U.S. intelligence issues, terrorist financing and financial crimes.

----------------------------------------------------

Holy shit!

[mfcorey1]

7. Three million chickens that crossed the road not calculated in missing poultry.

[dmallind]

10. Easy way to change it if you are not counted. Look for work.

Just once in a month keeps you in U3. Just once in a whole fricking year keeps you in U6. I see no problem with assuming people who have not looked once in a year are for whatever reason out of the workforce entirely and no more "unemployed" than a billionaire's trophy wife is unemployed. I was unemployed for pretty much all of 2009. There wasn't so much as HALF a week that I didn't look for work by the official definition, let alone four weeks or 52 weeks, and not one damn day when I wasn't looking in some way.