Economy: The difference between ‘unemployed’ and jobless

Over the weekend, Floyd Norris of the NYT took a look at the seldom-mentioned difference between official government unemployment figures and the real numbers of jobless Americans. The former are for the most part those who are recently unemployed and still in the system; the latter counts those who are still without work but have stopped actively looking.

Focusing on American males between the ages of 25 and 54, Norris writes: “Men in the prime of their working lives are now less likely to have jobs than they were during all but one recession of the last 60 years. Most of them do not qualify as unemployed, but they are nonetheless without jobs.”

The chart published with Norris’ story tells the picture best: