{"id":11109,"date":"2015-02-07T14:15:54","date_gmt":"2015-02-07T14:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=11109"},"modified":"2015-02-07T14:21:14","modified_gmt":"2015-02-07T14:21:14","slug":"the-unemployment-crisis-reaches-a-critical-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=11109","title":{"rendered":"The Unemployment Crisis Reaches A Critical Stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Only 44 Percent Of U.S. Adults Are Employed For 30 Or More Hours Per Week<\/strong><\/h2>\n

By Michael Snyder
\nTheEconomicCollapseblog.com<\/p>\n

\"Jobs<\/a>Jim Clifton, the Chairman and CEO of Gallup, says that the percentage of Americans that are employed full-time has been hovering near record lows since the end of the last recession.\u00a0 But most Americans don\u2019t realize this because the official unemployment numbers are extremely misleading.\u00a0 In fact, Clifton says that the official 5.6 percent unemployment rate is a \u201cbig lie\u201d.\u00a0 Gallup regularly tracks the percentage of U.S. adults that are employed for 30 or more hours per week, and it is currently at 44.2 percent.\u00a0 It has been hovering between 42 percent and 45 percent since the end of 2009.\u00a0 This is extremely low.\u00a0 As I discussed\u00a0the other day<\/a>, there are\u00a08.69 million Americans<\/a>\u00a0that are considered to be \u201cofficially unemployed\u201d at this point.\u00a0 But there are another\u00a092.90 million Americans<\/a>\u00a0that are considered to be \u201cnot in the labor force\u201d.\u00a0 Millions upon millions of those Americans would work if they could.\u00a0 Overall, there are 101 million U.S. adults that do not have a job right now.\u00a0 But you won\u2019t hear that number being discussed by the mainstream media, because it would make Barack Obama look really bad.<\/p>\n

Most Americans just assume that the economic numbers that we are being given accurately reflect reality.\u00a0 That is why it is so refreshing to have men like Jim Clifton step forward and tell the truth.\u00a0 His recent article entitled \u201cThe Big Lie: 5.6% Unemployment<\/a>\u201d is making headlines all over America.\u00a0 The following is an extended excerpt from that article as follows:<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another reason why the official rate is misleading. Say you\u2019re an out-of-work engineer or healthcare worker or construction worker or retail manager:\u00a0If you perform a minimum of one hour of work in a week and are paid at least $20 \u2014 maybe someone pays you to mow their lawn \u2014 you\u2019re not officially counted as unemployed in the much-reported 5.6%<\/strong>. Few Americans know this.<\/p>\n

Yet another figure of importance that doesn\u2019t get much press: those working part time but wanting full-time work.\u00a0If you have a degree in chemistry or math and are working 10 hours part time because it is all you can find \u2014 in other words, you are severely underemployed \u2014 the government doesn\u2019t count you in the 5.6%<\/strong>. Few Americans know this.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no other way to say this. The official unemployment rate, which cruelly overlooks the suffering of the long-term and often permanently unemployed as well as the depressingly underemployed, amounts to a Big Lie<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s a lie that has consequences, because the great American dream is to have a good job, and in recent years, America has failed to deliver that dream more than it has at any time in recent memory. A good job is an individual\u2019s primary identity, their very self-worth, their dignity \u2014 it establishes the relationship they have with their friends, community and country. When we fail to deliver a good job that fits a citizen\u2019s talents, training and experience, we are failing the great American dream.<\/p>\n

Gallup defines a good job as 30+ hours per week for an organization that provides a regular paycheck. Right now, the U.S. is delivering at a staggeringly\u00a0low rate of 44%<\/a>, which is the number of full-time jobs as a percent of the adult population, 18 years and older.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And Gallup is being extremely generous.<\/p>\n

I certainly would not define a 30 hour a week job at minimum wage as a \u201cgood job\u201d, but Gallup does.<\/p>\n

So the truth is that the percentage of U.S. adults that do have \u201cgood jobs\u201d is actually\u00a0far<\/strong>lower than 44 percent.<\/p>\n

In the\u00a0video<\/a>\u00a0that I have posted below, there is much more from Clifton about our current employment crisis\u2026<\/p>\n

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