All told, 14.7 million people were unemployed in June.So what does that mean? It means there are 14.7 million people who are out of a job, but are still looking for a job. This brings up the obvious question... what of those who just give up looking for a job? The simple answer is that they aren't counted. The article continues and gives us the rate that most of us care about:
If laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have settled for part-time work are included, the unemployment rate would have been 16.5 percent in June, the highest on records dating to 1994.16.5%?!?! So AP pegs those under or unemployed at 25,457,355. That gives a private sector unemployment rate of 22.27% (private sector being calculated from BLS numbers of all employed in 2008 of 154,287,000 minus approx 40,000,000 public sector employees)
Its good to know that we are in the good hands of a Kenyan after being in the good hands of a "compassionate conservative." Imagine how bad things would be if we had a more libertarian government with a Ron Paul or Chuck Baldwin in office.