Jobs: Worse than the Headlines

Out in Bethlehem
They're killing time
Filling out forms
Standing in line
--Billy Joel

Two interesting charts borrowed from a recent post by Prof John Taylor. First is the headline unemployment rate adjusted for workforce participation rate taken from this paper.

If we adjust for the number of people leaving the work force, which has been increasing, then the headline unemployment number would be more than 3 pts higher. Moreover, the gap between headline number and the adjusted number is increasing.

The other chart shows change in the percentage of working age population that is actually working following two recessions: the recent Great Recession and the Recession of '82--which btw happens to be when I first entered the workforce.

Unlike the period following the Recession of '82 when increasingly more of the working age population went to work, the end of the Great Recession has seen fewer working age people with jobs.

When will we realize that current economic policies are not only not improving matters...but making things worse?