Giving a True Account of the Unemployed

Re “Jobless Count Skips Millions,” Dec. 29: Thank you for finally revealing that the official 5.9% jobless rate is “artificially rosy,” with a true number of 9.7%. Sadly, the position is worse than your article suggests. Exactly how does the U.S. government know how many people are “actively looking for work”? Here is a news flash. It doesn’t. While the compilation of statistics in this country is very good, the unemployment number is based on guesswork. A true compilation of the unemployment number would start with the 62% of working adults in the total population. Adjustments need to be made for retirees, the disabled and other categories such as homemakers. But I suggest that the final number would be closer to 15.9%.

I helped to run a training, networking and support group in Simi Valley for the unemployed, sponsored by the state, for over a year. Those claiming unemployment insurance reported their status for six months and, when their benefits ran out, all contact stopped. They did not “report themselves” as unemployed for data collection purposes. So, people who were unemployed for two years did not appear as “unemployed,” even though they were job-hunting furiously. Simply put, they were invisible.

Raymond Freeman

Thousand Oaks

*

Those of us who hire people generally feel that a 6% unemployment rate means there is no unemployment. We are just down to the unemployables. The article refers to a self-employed writer whose business “cratered” (?) and now feels she is underemployed and is dismayed at how many friends are delivering packages and waiting tables. Are these not honorable endeavors? A UC Berkeley graduate and his recent English-graduate wife come in for their share of sympathy along with a guy who quit one job and now can’t find another in his field. Too bad the reporter didn’t interview someone who works with a shovel. They all seem to be pretty busily employed.

The article takes The Times’ ritualistic crack at “burger flippers, temps and Wal-Mart clerks.” If a young person will take the work ethic habits taught at McDonald’s and Wal-Mart and get additional education at night school, then, with persistency and patience, he or she can accomplish anything.

Raymond G. Boyd

Somis, Calif.

*

Your article on the jobless seems to indicate that President Bush’s optimism about the economy is yet another lie. Companies are still laying off employees, and there is still the race to the bottom by manufacturing and high-tech companies sending jobs offshore. So the few jobs that have been created are at a lower wage than those that were lost. Our “recovery” is both jobless and investor-less. Without investment in new jobs and job initiatives, the country will continue its downward spiral. But Bush is more interested in what he can do for the wealthiest 1% than what he can do for the other 99%.

Les Hartzman

Sherman Oaks

*

Re underemployment: The problem has been with us for at least 10 years. Business news in the early ‘90s was dominated by two topics -- outsourcing and downsizing. Manufacturing jobs were sold overseas to the lowest bidder, and service positions were staffed by a growing army of temporary personnel. Countless workers subsisted on part-time, temporary or freelance work. They enjoyed no paid time off, health care or job security.

This condition got worse throughout the decade. I know from bitter firsthand experience. Yet all through the Clinton years, the phrase “good economy” was thundered in my ears time and again. Only now are the media shocked, positively shocked, to discover widespread underemployment exists.

Charles Hoffman

Van Nuys