writing- Bad News about your job

why the unemployment rate is artificially low


An unemployment rate and a payroll jobs statistics are main measurements to make an employment data, but those data doesn’t show a real job situation. Because in 1990s economy getting worse led to generate more a outsourcing, an independent business and a contract work which unemployment figure didn’t account. Therefore, the Bureau of Labor Statistics introduced a new range of alternative unemployment measures that categorizes unemployment situation from U1 to U6. It includes underutilized workers who are unemployed 15 weeks or longer, lost temporary jobs and not looking for a job currently. The measure U6 calculate total number of the unemployed and all those people mentioned above. Last month, the unemployment rate was 6.1 percent and the underutilization rate was 4.9. This figure means that the unemployment rate seems not serious but a real job situation is worse.

It is not hard to guess how many people are suffering from losing job in the Wall Street due to the current recession. Many people are having difficulties in getting jobs not only for a business recession but also for a changing economy trend. It’s not an only American story. As of September 2008, Korean unemployment rate is 3 percent. In this statistics, an unemployed people don’t include temporary workers and job seekers. If the National Statistical Office of Korea uses U6 in alternative measure of labor underutilization, the unemployment rate would be much higher than it has been at any time. Why the Korean government keeps an unemployment rate low? The Korean government might think unemployment is a government level issue and worry about Korean economy sentiment, which may affect on economy. It is no doubt that Korean as well as the Korean government should put all efforts into improving economy to reduce unemployment rate.