Rep. Hunter pushes to have REAL unemployment numbers released

A group of House lawmakers signed on to the Real Unemployment Calculation Act in an effort to keep both political parties honest when it comes to the nation’s unemployed.

The lingering recession prompted Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) to introduce new legislation that would require the Bureau of Labor Statistics to report the nation’s true unemployment number. Currently the government’s reported monthly unemployment numbers do not include those who have given up looking for a job. Hunter says the Bureau of Labor Statistics currently calculates those Americans that have given up looking for work in the U-5 calculation.

Hunter points out that using the real unemployment numbers brings America’s out of work folks up to 9.9 percent, not the 8.3 percent the Obama Administration currently touts.

“In order to effectively address the economic challenges we face, and confront the national unemployment situation, we must know the full extent of the problem,” said Congressman Hunter. “As some pundits and politicians cite a near 8 percent unemployment rate, they are purposely avoiding a subset of Americans who are not counted. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does, in fact, provide alternative measurements of unemployment, but they are consistently overshadowed by the U-3 rate, which ignores a large group of people. We need to be realistic and focus our attention on the figure that provides the most accurate representation of national unemployment—not the figure that under-represents the challenge we face.”

For more information on the national unemployment rate numbers, click here.

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