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Reason #10: Invisible Unemployment Remains above 10 Percent for 59 Straight Months

July 09, 2014

Invisible Unemployment Remains Above 10 Percent for 59 Straight Months.  Although the unemployment rate has fallen, when combined with those that have given up looking for work, the “invisible” unemployment rate remains above 10 percent.

Sources: January 2009 Romer/Bernstein Report (“Administration Prediction With Stimulus Plan”), actual U.S. Department of Labor data and Ways and Means Republican staff calculations of “invisible unemployed.”  The “invisible unemployed” are defined as unemployed persons not included in official unemployment rate calculations because they are not currently in the labor force, compared with the month Democrats’ stimulus passed (February 2009).  This includes people who quit looking for jobs since stimulus passed and dropped out of the labor force, plus other working-age adults who never entered the labor force, but presumably would have if the labor force participation rate was the same as when stimulus passed.

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As introduced on June 17, 2014, Ways and Means Chairman Camp is listing 40 reasons for the Senate to pass the 40 jobs bills the House has already approved.  The reasons define the distress Americans continue to feel in the “new normal” of high unemployment and weak job creation resulting from Obama Administration economic policies.

View the prior reasons here.

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