The Economist is reporting that a new paper written by Katharine Bradbury of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston is openly questionning the official unemployment rate.
A new paper* by Katharine Bradbury of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston should keep the question open for a while longer. The unemployment rate, she suggests, may be a poor measure of slack in the labour market. By her yardstick, there may be as many as 5.1m Americans who do not appear in the unemployment rolls, but who might rejoin the job queue if work were more forthcoming. If so, the "true" unemployment rate could be over 8%, not 5%; the true number of jobless 12.6m, not 7.5m.
I shall add a link but I know you have to subscribe to see it.
http://www.economist.com/finance/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4223595
Interesting stuff though. I would copy the whole thing out for you guys but I think that impinges on copyright law.
I have however linked her report which is public domain. http://www.bos.frb.org/economic/ppb/2005/ppb052.htm
I really believe that the economy is an issue we should harp on about incessantly. If this is to be believed, they will have lost the final vestige of public faith.