WHY WE'RE IN _TWO-THIRDS_ OF A GREAT DEPRESSION by Richard N. Bolles (author of "What Color is Your Parachute?") San Francisco Examiner, Sunday, January 24, 1999 When you are out of work during a prosperous time like the present, it's easy to get the feeling that everyone in the country has a job except you. As you walk the streets, seeing everyone laughing around you, with no one guessing the depth of your loss or the sorrow of losing your job, it can be a mighty lonely feeling. You are not alone So let's put that feeling in some kind of perspective, with actual numbers. Turn to the Great Depression. During the height of that Depression, in 1933, the government says there were more than 12 million Americans out of work. We all would agree that's an awful lot of people out of work at the same time. Now turn to the present time, and what do we see? We see 7 million Americans currently out of work -- which is close to two- thirds of the number of people who were ought of work at the height of the Depression. Oops! Why didn't you know that? Well, it's not ever popular to talk about how many people are out of work. Year in or year out, regardless of whether the Republicans or the Democrats are in power, it's more popular to talk about the unemployment rate. "Rate" is so clinical, so objective, so removed from the thought of actual souls going through a very difficult period in their lives. Also "rate" can be made to sound good. For example, the unemployment rate in 1933 was 24.9 percent, which sounds terrible, while the unemployment rate recently has been hovering around 4.4 percent, which sounds great. Hiding suffering We rarely think to ask: 24.9 percent of what? And, 4.4 percent of what? The answer is: "the number of people in the labor force at that time." That can vary greatly over time. In 1933, 12.8 million people were out of work, but because the labor force was much smaller than it is today, this worked out to the 24.9 percent rate. Today, the government admits there are 6.1 million people out of work, but because the labor force is much larger than it was in 1933, this has worked out to a 4.4 percent unemployment rate. That sounds like a small figure, but it masks the large figure beneath it. And it masks a lot of suffering. Unhappily, the true figure is even worse. The government now counts unemployment in a different way than it did in 1933 -- it no longer considers people "unemployed" if they haven't looked for a job in the last four weeks. Those people, 1.2 million in number currently, are now classified as "discouraged workers." (!!??!!?) Add their number to the unemployment figure currently, as any sane person would, and you find there are actually 7.3 million people out of work. So you are anything but alone if you are out of work in these prosperous times. Don't go it alone But you can sink into a depression -- not the economic kind but the emotional kind -- if you try to go it alone. You need to find some of those 7 million other unemployed people and work together on your job hunt ... [Blah blah, blah blah blah, blah ....] <snip cliche advice>
