See below for US government data as released by the US government, accessed November 2014.
http://census.gov
http://bls.gov
The Officially Reported “National Unemployment Rate” for November 2014 is 5.8%.
Total number of persons employed as of November 2014: ~141 million. If working age persons are those at least 18 years of age and less than 65 years of age, then there are about (76.3% – 13.4% = 62.9%, times 316 million) 199 million people of working age in the US. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics data, 141 million are working. Thus (199 million – 141 million) 58 million people are not working, that is unemployed. Therefore the real unemployment rate is (58 million divided by 199 million) approximately 29%. If we use all persons between 16 and 65, as the official rate claims, then the situation is worse.
If many of those persons who are employed are “undocumented workers” who are not included in the total population count, then the situation is worse. There were an estimated 20,000,000 “undocumented workers” in the US 10 years ago. Including them in the population would give 161 million (not 141 million) for 78 million (not 58 million) not working or a real unemployment rate of (78 million divided by 221 million) 35.29%.
This does NOT include persons who, technically, are “employed”, but at so little wages that they cannot afford to support themselves or their families.
SOURCES
Data extracted on: December 4, 2014 (10:59:47 PM)
From http://www.bls.gov/cps/lfcharacteristics.htm#unemp
Persons are considered unemployed ONLY if they are waiting to be recalled to a job OR they have been actively applying for jobs for the last four weeks. If they gave up five weeks ago, they are no longer considered “unemployed”, just “not working”.
Unemployment
Persons are classified as unemployed if they do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior 4 weeks, and are currently available for work. Persons who were not working and were waiting to be recalled to a job from which they had been temporarily laid off are also included as unemployed. Receiving benefits from the Unemployment Insurance (UI) program has no bearing on whether a person is classified as unemployed.
The Officially sanctioned “national unemployment rate” is 5.8%.
Officially reported National Unemployment Rate: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000
| Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 5.7 | 5.6 | 5.8 | 5.6 | 5.6 | 5.6 | 5.5 | 5.4 | 5.4 | 5.5 | 5.4 | 5.4 | |
| 2005 | 5.3 | 5.4 | 5.2 | 5.2 | 5.1 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 4.9 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 4.9 | |
| 2006 | 4.7 | 4.8 | 4.7 | 4.7 | 4.6 | 4.6 | 4.7 | 4.7 | 4.5 | 4.4 | 4.5 | 4.4 | |
| 2007 | 4.6 | 4.5 | 4.4 | 4.5 | 4.4 | 4.6 | 4.7 | 4.6 | 4.7 | 4.7 | 4.7 | 5.0 | |
| 2008 | 5.0 | 4.9 | 5.1 | 5.0 | 5.4 | 5.6 | 5.8 | 6.1 | 6.1 | 6.5 | 6.8 | 7.3 | |
| 2009 | 7.8 | 8.3 | 8.7 | 9.0 | 9.4 | 9.5 | 9.5 | 9.6 | 9.8 | 10.0 | 9.9 | 9.9 | |
| 2010 | 9.7 | 9.8 | 9.9 | 9.9 | 9.6 | 9.4 | 9.5 | 9.5 | 9.5 | 9.5 | 9.8 | 9.4 | |
| 2011 | 9.1 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 9.1 | 9.0 | 9.1 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 8.8 | 8.6 | 8.5 | |
| 2012 | 8.2 | 8.3 | 8.2 | 8.2 | 8.2 | 8.2 | 8.2 | 8.1 | 7.8 | 7.8 | 7.8 | 7.9 | |
| 2013 | 7.9 | 7.7 | 7.5 | 7.5 | 7.5 | 7.5 | 7.3 | 7.2 | 7.2 | 7.2 | 7.0 | 6.7 | |
| 2014 | 6.6 | 6.7 | 6.7 | 6.3 | 6.3 | 6.1 | 6.2 | 6.1 | 5.9 | 5.8 | 5.8 |
Actual unemployed persons are all persons of working age who are not working: 29%
Employment, Hours, and Earnings from the Current Employment Statistics survey (National)
| Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 128691 | 129302 | 130342 | 131458 | 132361 | 132805 | 131644 | 131663 | 132377 | 133357 | 133607 | 133376 | 131749 |
| 2005 | 130670 | 131493 | 132332 | 133544 | 134357 | 135025 | 133964 | 134213 | 134841 | 135568 | 136124 | 135923 | 134005 |
| 2006 | 133269 | 134194 | 135173 | 136086 | 136892 | 137393 | 136218 | 136423 | 137092 | 137791 | 138176 | 138065 | 136398 |
| 2007 | 135276 | 135966 | 136862 | 137668 | 138611 | 139114 | 137715 | 137826 | 138391 | 139132 | 139443 | 139231 | 137936 |
| 2008 | 136200 | 136719 | 137309 | 137844 | 138417 | 138612 | 137131 | 137021 | 137075 | 137368 | 136687 | 135656 | 137170 |
| 2009 | 131965 | 131731 | 131597 | 131781 | 132054 | 131870 | 130273 | 130150 | 130509 | 131106 | 131152 | 130606 | 131233 |
| 2010 | 127736 | 128170 | 129003 | 130125 | 131240 | 131360 | 130022 | 130088 | 130583 | 131557 | 131862 | 131556 | 130275 |
| 2011 | 128692 | 129505 | 130410 | 131627 | 132310 | 132799 | 131525 | 131799 | 132545 | 133466 | 133800 | 133625 | 131842 |
| 2012 | 131033 | 131987 | 132881 | 133769 | 134582 | 134919 | 133702 | 134082 | 134708 | 135630 | 136014 | 135938 | 134104 |
| 2013 | 133074 | 134112 | 134917 | 135911 | 136793 | 137195 | 136050 | 136477 | 137069 | 138013 | 138536 | 138269 | 136368 |
| 2014 | 135451 | 136192 | 137147 | 138265 | 139184 | 139772 | 138669 | 139061 | 139753(P) | 140817(P) | |||
| P : preliminary | |||||||||||||
From 2010 Census data, estimated for 2013
| 2013 Population Estimate (as of July 1, 2013) | 316,128,839 |
From 2010 actual & 2013 AGE data
| 18 years and over | 76.3% | +/-0.1 |
|---|---|---|
| 65 years and over | 13.4% | +/-0.1 |