Friday, March 6, 2009

U-6 unemployment rate spikes sharply in February

Data image: U-6 rate, 1994-Feb 2009* Source.

It is now at 14.8 percent, up from 13.9 percent in January. The U-6 is the broadest statistical representation of the labor market and, specifically, of under-employment and unemployment.

Here are the recent U-6 data:

Feb 2008: 9.0

Oct 2008: 12.0

Nov 2008: 12.6

Dec 2008: 13.5

Jan 2009: 13.9

Feb 2009: 14.8

*Notes:

1. U-6 measures "Total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers"

2. "Marginally attached workers are persons who currently are neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they want and are available for a job and have looked for work sometime in the recent past. Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached, have given a job-market related reason for not looking currently for a job. Persons employed part time for economic reasons are those who want and are available for full-time work but have had to settle for a part-time schedule."

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