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file this one next to the desire to reclassify fast food workers as manufacturing employees...
IT'S ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE FEDS TO CALL YOU UNEMPLOYED
By JOHN CRUDELE
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March 2, 2004 -- THE experts claim they are surprised at how low the nation's unemployment rate has remained. But if you look at the generous definition of employment used by Washington, the real surprise is that anyone is technically jobless.
For instance, the government considers you employed if you work a mere 15 hours a week in a family business - even if you don't get paid.
You are also considered employed if you claim to government snoops that you are only temporarily out of work because of "illness, vacation, bad weather, child care problems, labor management disputes or because (you are) taking time off for various other reasons, even if (you) were not paid by your employers for the time off."
That's the exact language in the government's definition of employment, as taken from the so-called household survey from which the nation's monthly unemployment rate is derived.
The unemployment rate was only 5.6 percent in January, a figure that the pros like to marvel at when they are desperately searching for good news on the labor markets. That figure is expected to stay put when February's labor numbers are reported this coming Friday.
The experts also are expecting 125,000 new jobs to have been created last month, a figure that will be welcomed even if it is sub-par for an economic recovery like the one we are supposed to be experiencing.
Alan Greenspan recently weighed in on the debate that's been raging on Wall Street when he said that we should believe the survey that measures jobs based on what companies tell the government about job creation, not what workers themselves say.
Now you know why.
It's nearly impossible to be unemployed if you use the government's definition.
IT'S ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE FEDS TO CALL YOU UNEMPLOYED
By JOHN CRUDELE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
March 2, 2004 -- THE experts claim they are surprised at how low the nation's unemployment rate has remained. But if you look at the generous definition of employment used by Washington, the real surprise is that anyone is technically jobless.
For instance, the government considers you employed if you work a mere 15 hours a week in a family business - even if you don't get paid.
You are also considered employed if you claim to government snoops that you are only temporarily out of work because of "illness, vacation, bad weather, child care problems, labor management disputes or because (you are) taking time off for various other reasons, even if (you) were not paid by your employers for the time off."
That's the exact language in the government's definition of employment, as taken from the so-called household survey from which the nation's monthly unemployment rate is derived.
The unemployment rate was only 5.6 percent in January, a figure that the pros like to marvel at when they are desperately searching for good news on the labor markets. That figure is expected to stay put when February's labor numbers are reported this coming Friday.
The experts also are expecting 125,000 new jobs to have been created last month, a figure that will be welcomed even if it is sub-par for an economic recovery like the one we are supposed to be experiencing.
Alan Greenspan recently weighed in on the debate that's been raging on Wall Street when he said that we should believe the survey that measures jobs based on what companies tell the government about job creation, not what workers themselves say.
Now you know why.
It's nearly impossible to be unemployed if you use the government's definition.
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