Frances A. Walker wrote in 1890, ". . . gross exaggeration is resorted to in stating the number habitually unemployed, which is sometimes placed as high as one fifth or one quarter of the laboring population. One writer speaks of the unemployed as 'the reserve army of industry.'" It should go without saying that gross exaggeration could as easily be resorted to in understating the number of unemployed. I would be at least as suspicious of the 4% historical statistic cited by NBER as by 20%. It could be George Gunton (Wealth and Work?) who was the source for the 20% figure that Walker criticizes. >I remember reading somewhere that the average unemployment rate in the US >in the latter half of the 1800s was probably around 20%. Anyone else seen >this figure? Any comparables for England? > > Thanks, Ellen Frank Tom Walker http://www.vcn.bc.ca/timework/
