Who thinks the unemployment rate is greatly underestimated?

1. 58

   MyMastiffPuppiesposted 15 years ago

   Who thinks the unemployment rate is greatly underestimated?
   
   How much of a percentage do you think the unemployment numbers are off?

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2. 70

   Tusitala Tomposted 15 years ago

   I know that you're probably talking about the United States.  It might be a good idea to mention that when you couch a question.   Hubpages is world-wide and America is not the centre of the earth.   Sorry, if I sound a bit agrieved, but it seems to be taken for granted that every questioner and forthcoming answers is expected to emanate out of mainland U.S.A.
   
   In Australia we managed to ride out the economic downturn by massive expenditure on government works; a lot like Franklyn Delano Rooseveldt did in the 1930s to pull the U.S out of the Great Depression.   Our unemployment figure remained largely unaltered.   Many new jobs were created and the value of the Aussie dollar went up (due people overseas putting their money where they thought it to be safe)   None of our banks failed.  And of the ten world banks with the greatest credibility as regarded as being 'safe' four of them are Australian.
   
   Will your unemployment rate drop?   I hope so.   But as long as your big companies keep placing their manufacturing offshore to keep down labour costs...well...stopping that is a matter for your government.

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      Eugene Hardyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I like your answer, and we in the States should think more globally online.
      Thanks.

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3. 68

   Thesourceposted 15 years ago

   I believe you are talking in the context of USA.
   If so yes. Many have given up looking for jobs as there unemployment insurance have ran out. These segment of the population may not have been included in the official figures.
   
   Tusitala Tom bring up an interesting point. It appears Australia did the right thing. Here in the US, partisan politics is messing up solutions to the recession. The Republican are screaming about deficits at the wrong time. They are making recovery stimulus a bad word. They don't want government to spend to help the economy recover. Unemployment situation  getting worse. Please read my hub on Government spending and taxes. Public opinion is moving away from doing the right thing.

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   1. 59

      Eugene Hardyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Spend or not spend, damn if we, damned if we don't.
      What we need are shared honest solutions to our problems.  We can't undo 40 years of fiscal policies over night, but we should have started like yesterday.

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4. 61

   ultracutebotposted 15 years ago

   i definitely think the number is drastically off. depending on what data was reviewed and how reliable that data is in the first place makes the possibility of a large number of unemployed americans going uncounted in widely publicized statistics much greater. so if a percentage was based on only people who applied for unemployment benefits, one would need to find out how many people (more or less) are unemployed but have not filed for unemployment or any other government assistance to this point.

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