Friday, January 22, 2010

You Don't Count - Is 2010 U.S. Structural Unemployment really 40.6% ?

No, actually, it's apparently 42.1% because I missed the incarcerated population in my copy/paste to spreadsheet, below.

Please, somebody, anybody, show me where I'm double counting ... if I'm double counting. I don't think so, but all source data is linked for your loyal relentless scrutiny.
The rest of you losers do count, sort of. You're the currently "official" 17.3% unemployed.

In Sum: 1.5 + 14.4 + 1.9 + 0.5 + 2.2 + (nevermind those 0.001% lazy dads) + 4.3 + 17.3 = 42.1%

News Flash: At best, this is going to remain steady for the foreseeable future.

Upshot: If these numbers are even anywhere near accurate, it means that we are already way into Structural Unemployment land, boys and girls. Yes, it means that 19th Century Industrial Capitalism worked. We are so astronomically technologically enhanced, roboticized, computerized, and insanely efficient, that just 60% of able bodied, educated adults are more than capable of providing 100% of market demand for our domestic and export economies.

And we're getting even more efficient, every day, as nearly all recent projections call for ever increasing corporate growth with perpetually anemic demand for workers.