The March of Lies

[Slargos]

It seems you can't really trust anything but your own feet these days.

Dig this.

Official unemployment numbers in Sweden as routinely quoted by any article on the subject: 4.8% of the workforce.

Once you start digging, however, the total tally of people between the ages of 16-64 IE generally considered of working age, 19.8% are not currently employed.

I knew they fudged the numbers, and I figured double it to get closer to reality, but this is just atrocious.

I wonder if I should just sit down and write a book.

There's certainly plenty of material for it.

But then, someone probably already wrote it; it simply never got to its readers.

And the sweet irony is that they called Norway the last Soviet state.

[Admiral Yi]

Would you prefer that they include stay at home moms in the unemployment rate?

[Siege]

You don't have a job?
Join the military.
We need more support dudes, so we can be free to do what we do.

[Jaron]

You don't have a job?
Join the military.
We need more support dudes, so we can be free to do what we do.

Could you use me?

[merithyn]

I know an awful lot of 16 year olds through to college-aged without jobs, too. You want to count that in your unemployment numbers with your stay-at-home parents? What about the early retirees?

[Eddie Teach]

You don't have a job?
Join the military.
We need more support dudes, so we can be free to do what we do.

I think the Swedish army has sufficient support for the operations it does.

[Viking]

It seems you can't really trust anything but your own feet these days.

Dig this.

Official unemployment numbers in Sweden as routinely quoted by any article on the subject: 4.8% of the workforce.

Once you start digging, however, the total tally of people between the ages of 16-64 IE generally considered of working age, 19.8% are not currently employed.

I knew they fudged the numbers, and I figured double it to get closer to reality, but this is just atrocious.

I wonder if I should just sit down and write a book.

There's certainly plenty of material for it.

But then, someone probably already wrote it; it simply never got to its readers.

And the sweet irony is that they called Norway the last Soviet state.

Norway is worse. In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king.

[Strix]

Unemployment numbers are tricky. I know a lot of places only count those people claiming unemployment. Those same places also have a limit as to how long you can collect unemployment if you are even eligible in the first place. Therefore, the people who can no longer collect unemployment or are ineligible are not counted towards unemployment.

[Monoriu]

I think it is more a question of reporting rather than statistics compilation.  The reports do tell you what the numbers mean when you dig deep enough.  The problem is that the reporting often fails to inform readers of these things. 

As to unemployment, the figures in HK also exclude those who are not actively seeking jobs.  Otherwise, you'll include people like housewives, students, trust fund babies etc in the figures. 

[MadImmortalMan]

Does the 4.8% number exclude anyone currently receiving benefits for not working like welfare or severance or slutpacks? If so, it's BS. Counting housewives and whatever doesn't make sense.

[Threviel]

Once you start digging, however, the total tally of people between the ages of 16-64 IE generally considered of working age, 19.8% are not currently employed.

That 19.8% includes students I assume, they shouldn't be counted. And to be correct you should also remove all house wives, prison inmates, sick and those unfit for work. If you would look at http://www.konj.se/lagetisvenskekonomienoversikt/lagetisvenskekonomi/arbetsloshet.4.165a3c2f6d286f5347fff862.html you would find that the official unemployment is around 9-10% which incidentally is the number you probably would get to if you would remove all those that shouldn't be reported as unemployed.

[Martinus]

Well, I don't think anyone sane would assume that the expression "unemployment rate" should be understood as including stay at home moms, early retirees or the idly rich.

[Razgovory]

Slargos is an idiot, news at 11.

[Slargos]

4.6% is the low number, 19.8% is the high.

And yes, 19.8% includes students, but it also includes people on mandatory "work-facilitating education" such as a "computer driver's license" and other important university level education.

The official number they are forced to report to the relevant EU authority on the subject is around 8% but that's still fudged.

[viper37]

It seems you can't really trust anything but your own feet these days.

Dig this.

Official unemployment numbers in Sweden as routinely quoted by any article on the subject: 4.8% of the workforce.

Once you start digging, however, the total tally of people between the ages of 16-64 IE generally considered of working age, 19.8% are not currently employed.

I knew they fudged the numbers, and I figured double it to get closer to reality, but this is just atrocious.

I wonder if I should just sit down and write a book.

There's certainly plenty of material for it.

But then, someone probably already wrote it; it simply never got to its readers.

And the sweet irony is that they called Norway the last Soviet state.

It's the same of every country...

Unemployed people are those who can & want to work over the total active population, wich excludes a lot of people (including the full time military, as they can't change job 'at will').

People not searching for work are not considered unemployed.  People who spend more than one year without a job are no longer considered as "searching for work", even if they are.  And that delay can even be shorter for some countries.  Canada reduced it's unemployment rate by changing the laws as to whom could receive a check.  People are living on their reserves, but they don't count as being unemployed even if they are at home waiting for winter to pass.