Jim Clifton, the chairman and CEO of the research and polling organization Gallup, wrote an op-ed highly critical of the "extremely misleading" methods used by the U.S. government to determine the official unemployment rate.
"Right now, we're hearing much celebrating from the media, the White House and Wall Street about how unemployment is 'down' to 5.6 percent," wrote Clifton. "The cheerleading for this number is deafening. The media loves a comeback story, the White House wants to score political points and Wall Street would like you to stay in the market."
Just a couple weeks ago, President Barack Obama stood in front of the nation and delivered his State of the Union address, touting the 5.6 percent official unemployment rate as being "lower than it was before the financial crisis." But upon closer inspection of exactly how that rate is determined, its inaccuracy becomes painfully obvious.
What most Americans don't know, Clifton continued, is that if a job hunter became discouraged and did not look for work in the four weeks preceding the unemployment survey, the Department of Labor doesn't count them in the official U-3 unemployment statistics.
This group of people are referred to as "marginally attached" - residing in a workforce limbo, officially considered neither employed nor unemployed.
"That's right," Clifton said. "While you are as unemployed as one can possibly be, and tragically may never find work again, you are not counted in the figure we see relentlessly in the news -- currently 5.6 percent. Right now, as many as 30 million Americans are either out of work or severely underemployed.
"There's another reason why the official rate is misleading. Say you're an out-of-work engineer or healthcare worker or construction worker or retail manager: If you perform a minimum of one hour of work in a week and are paid at least $20 -- maybe someone pays you to mow their lawn -- you're not officially counted as unemployed in the much-reported 5.6%. Few Americans know this."
And those who are working part-time but want to work full-time - in other words, severely underemployed - are not counted as unemployed either.
It's safe to say that the more accurate unemployment rate is about double the official rate reported by the government, notes Forbes.
"There's no other way to say this," Clifton concludes. "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."
"And it's 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's primary identity, their very self-worth, their dignity -- it establishes the relationship they have with their friends, community and country. When we fail to deliver a good job that fits a citizen's talents, training and experience, we are failing the great American dream."
