>Btw, a bit of confusion at what you wrote above: how can 'the pool
>of available workers', comprising the
>officially unemployed PLUS "those counted as not in labor force -
>want job now", be less than the offically unemployed ?
>i.e. how can A + B < A, if both A and B > 0 ?
Because the denominator for the unemployment rate is the civilian labor force (those working plus those officially unemployed); that for the pool of available workers is the entire adult population (excluding those behind bars or otherwise institutionalized). The unemployment rate expressed as a percentage of the entire adult noninst pop would be 3.6%.
You're right that U-6 is a better measure of a 'real' unemployment rate, but it's a bourgeois state, after all. The numbers are there for everyone to scrutinize every month, however.
Doug