Statistics don't reflect discouraged job seekers

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

By Mike Benbow
Business Editor

I've written several news stories in recent weeks about how Snohomish County's economy appears to be picking up, especially on the job front.

-snip-

Whenever I write a story saying the job market's improving, I get at least one call from someone who starts yelling at me and calling me a freaking idiot. Those aren't the actual words he uses (it's always a male), but I can't use those words in a family newspaper.

The callers typically tell me that they don't see one bit of improvement in the economy. They talk about how they've been doing everything possible to get a job and they just can't find one. They want to know who is saying that more people are finding jobs. They think those people are lying. They think I'm lying.

-snip-

Chuck Morrison, a fishing buddy of mine who is interim director of the American Red Cross of Snohomish County, helped me understand why I'm getting these calls and why the callers are so angry.

"I think there are a lot of folks that don't show up in the statistics anymore that are the discouraged job seekers," Morrison said.

These are people who are desperate because they've lost their unemployment benefits and they just can't seem to find work or at least work that pays enough to cover their bills.

The Associated Press reported last week that economists say the weak job market is causing people to give up their searches and drop out of the labor pool at an unusual pace.

-more-

http://www.heraldnet.com/Stories/04/4/5/18429543.cfm

[rednek_Liberal]

1. I have been hearing about this

where people get so frustrated that they just give up and drop out of the workforce. If this is true then wouldn't that be affecting the unemployment ratings? Since there are less people looking for work, is ther less uninemployment? This still doesn't make sense to me.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. "Discouraged workers" are not counted

in the unemployment statistics. Neither are people who have worked even one hour in the past week.

Conservatives like to point to unemployment rates of 10% in European countries, but they offer longer unemployment benefits and count everybody, including discouraged workers, part-timers who would rather be full-time, and new graduates, in their statistics.

I lived through a time when Minnesota had 11% unemployment (early 1980s), but I wasn't part of those statistics, because I had just finished graduate school and was unable to find a teaching job.