American Economics 101

I read the other day that our unemployment rate is 5%. I also remember when President Reagan changed the employment stats with the destruction of the union and the addition of the military. Oh, by the way, on a side note here, I actually heard Sean Hannity say several times in 20 minutes, because that's all I listened . . . "What Would Reagan Do?" Can you believe someone would redirect the little saying from the Savior to the President? Well, I could elaborate, but that's not our blog topic today.
We are going to address this unemployment rate. I have heard one pundit offer the ideology that if 5% is unemployed, then that means 95% is employed and to that I would simply offer this information.
I know statisticians tend to prefer to not corrupt the expected outcome by variables, and unfortunately, most conservatives tend to not want to confuse their ideology with facts, but none the less here they are.
When we hear that the unemployment rate is at 5%, but it's not that bad; here are the rest of the figures.
12% of the American population is over the age of 65 with Social Security and Medicare
available.
18% of the American population has some degree of disability and has applied for
benefits, removing them the statistics of employable, at least temporarily if not permanently.
I personally know of situations in which the health issue has greatly improved, once the
disability was declared permanent, but those are statistics for yet another blog.
Nearly 1% of the American population is incarcerated.
24.6% of the American population is under the age of 18.
That brings us to the interesting figure of 55.6% of the American population that isn't even considered in the employment stats to begin with.
So, out of 44.4% of the American population that is considered members of the work force, 5% of them do not have a job.
So when we hear the unemployment rate is 5%, that means 39.4% of Americans are gainfully employed.
Sadly this does not reflect any information regarding those that have simply collected past the point of unemployment benefits, but have still not found employment. It certainly doesn't reflect any facts pertaining to those that have had to accept a much lower paying job to be employed, and it doesn't have any information about young mothers on welfare or the group of individuals between the ages of 18-25, whose parents do not consider them to be adults yet are are still subsidized students. According to some information, this groups is considered in the "slow lane to adulthood." Ah, the rights of adulthood, with the responsibility of childhood . . . Students are not considered in the employment statistics.
So, with 5% unemployment and war looming on the horizon for the military inclusion of our stats, the American employment rate is just under 40%.
A wise man will hear, and will increase learning . . . a Proverb of Holy Scripture