Here’s why the real unemployment rate may be higher than reported

Wow, the unemployment in the USA is really huge.

In the EU its 7%.

This article looks at the EU number: European unemployment is half that of America. Here's why - CNN. They mention two reasons:

• Europe subsidized short-term work programs and we didn't
• In the EU you're only unemployed if you're looking for work. But workers who think the shutdown is temporary probably aren't looking for new jobs, that mostly aren't there anyway.

The rule about looking for work is actually a problem in the US, but I believe states are telling applicants to lie when asked that question on the application. NJ posted a checklist of the correct answers to give to all the screening questions.

It's pretty clear that in the current situation we want to support people who are unemployed because of the shutdown, and in many cases looking for other work makes no sense. But getting the Federal government to remove that question is impractical, even if the IT systems could be updated to not ask it.

hedrick said:

In the EU you're only unemployed if you're looking for work. But workers who think the shutdown is temporary probably aren't looking for new jobs, that mostly aren't there anyway.

Click to expand...

I do not think this one is significant. People must register in unemployment service agencies to get state payments and to have social and health insurance paid by state. Or else they will get nothing and must pay the insurance by themselves.

It makes no sense for a worker to "wait" unregistered, so I do not think such people are significant for stats, if they even exist.