- by New Deal democrat
Here is the measure of people who aren't in the labor force because they aren't looking for a job, but say they "want a job now" (red) added to the unemployment rate (blue) and also (orange) added to the underemployment rate (green), current through this morning's employment report for December 2013:
I believe this a far more accurate way to look at the issue, as compared with EPI's "missing workers" estimate.
The numbers aren't pretty now, but note that they also weren't very pretty even before the recession.
