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The March of Lies

Started by Slargos, August 04, 2009, 05:33:38 PM

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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.




"All men are created equal, then some become infantry."

"Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who don't."

"Laissez faire et laissez passer, le monde va de lui même!"


Jaron

Quote from: Siege on August 04, 2009, 06:19:38 PM
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?
Winner of THE grumbler point.

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?
Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
I wish, I wish he'd go away...

Eddie Teach

Quote from: Siege on August 04, 2009, 06:19:38 PM
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.
To sleep, perchance to dream. But in that sleep of death, what dreams may come?

Viking

Quote from: Slargos on August 04, 2009, 05:33:38 PM
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.
First Maxim - "There are only two amounts, too few and enough."
First Corollary - "You cannot have too many soldiers, only too few supplies."
Second Maxim - "Be willing to exchange a bad idea for a good one."
Second Corollary - "You can only be wrong or agree with me."

A terrorist which starts a slaughter quoting Locke, Burke and Mill has completely missed the point.
The fact remains that the only person or group to applaud the Norway massacre are random Islamists.

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.
"I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left." - Margaret Thatcher

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.
"Stability is destabilizing." --Hyman Minsky

"Complacency can be a self-denying prophecy."
"We have nothing to fear but lack of fear itself." --Larry Summers

Threviel

Quote from: Slargos on August 04, 2009, 05:33:38 PM
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.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

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

#14
Quote from: Slargos on August 04, 2009, 05:33:38 PM
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.
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