Actual unemployment is 22% says DailyFinance.com

Over the past 55 years the Federal government keeps changing the definition of “unemployed” to keep the number down. An independent firm claims that 28% of all US households has at least one person looking for a job. This suggests that the rate of unemployed and underemployed individuals is 22%.

From DailyFinance.com

    College Grads Serving Fries

    Plus, having a job today is quite different from what it was just a few years ago: Many Americans have had their hours cut and are working for less pay. A Pew Research survey found more than half of all adults in the labor force had either lost a job or suffered a reduction in income because of the recession.

    Ginsburg says the biggest source of undercounting comes from people who can’t find a full-time job that they’re qualified to do, for instance recent college graduates who take part-time jobs at fast-food joints or retail stores. Today, the Labor Department estimates that 8.6 million people are in this category.

    The federal government counts such people as employed. However, polls show that these folks actually consider themselves “unemployed” and “looking for a job,” and probably accounted for a large chunk of TechnoMetrica’s respondents.

    Jobless Workers Who Disappear

    Another major source of undercounting is the unemployed who’ve given up looking for jobs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics headline number counts as unemployed only people who have actively looked for a job in the previous four weeks. About 2.6 million people had pursued jobs in the past 12 months but, discouraged by the lack of opportunity, had stopped looking altogether.

    “Isn’t it interesting that if you stopped looking for a job, you evaporate as a jobless person and are just not counted,” says Gerald Celente, director of Trends Research Institute in Kingston, N.Y. Celente believes this kind of undercounting has suited the government politically. “It’s what government does: Downplay disasters and amplify success.”

    According to the Pew Research Center, a large number of people are out of jobs for a longer period during this economic downturn. The typical unemployed worker today has been out of work for nearly six months. That’s almost double the previous post-World War II peak for this measure, which was 12.3 weeks in 1982-83.

    Indeed, if all of the truly unemployed were counted, the rate would be significantly higher. The BLS, in a data point titled “U-6,” says it counted the total unemployment rate in June at 16.5%.

Did I understand this right?  Are they actually counting the jobless who don't draw an unemployment check?

In my case, I been without a full time job since
December 2008, and have exhausted all my
unemployment benefits. I have to live with
Family to survive.
My working career spans from 1965 to 2008.
A few times I been unemployed, and was able
to fine work in less than 2 months.
I was told when I was interviewed for a job at
a clothing store near where I live, that they
seldon have anyone over the age of 30
applying for a job with that company.
Also, I read a figure from a reliable source
that for every job opening, there are now five
applicants.

Here it is 100 applicants for every job.

I bet that there are many just like me that ran out of
unemployment insurance.

Today, I meant a man in his 40's serving hamburger meals
at a fast food restaurant. Last year he had a $100,000
a year advanced IT job. He lost his house in foreclosure,
and had to send his kids to live with relatives.

How the US Economy is being destroyed:

Video:

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/897.html

As you have seven chillins, I am glad you have $500 to lose...while many would like to have $500 at all.  Godspeed :)