Tuesday, February 05, 2019

What is the real unemployment rate?

It's been seen at being around 4%, which is pretty good. However, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco points out that "This represents about 1.4 million additional individuals who are stuck in part-time jobs. These numbers imply that the level of involuntary part-time work is about 40% higher than would normally be expected at this point in the economic expansion.". Mass unemployment — the historic kind, with dole queues, unemployment benefits, and idle workers on street corners — has been replaced by low-paid, part-time, "gig economy" or "zero-hours" contract work.

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