The Real Unemployment Rate Hits 68 Year High

"As bad as they are, these figures dramatically understate the true extent of unemployment. First, they exclude anyone without a job who is ready to work but has not actively looked for a job in the previous four weeks. The Bureau of Labor Statistics classifies such workers as “marginally attached to the labor force” so long as they have looked for work within the last year. Marginally attached workers include so-called discouraged workers who have given up looking for job-related reasons, plus others who have given up for reasons such as school and family responsibilities, ill health, or transportation problems.

Second, the official unemployment rate leaves out part-time workers looking for full-time work: part-time workers are “employed” even if they work as little as one hour a week. The vast majority of people working part time involuntarily have had their hours cut due to slack or unfavorable business conditions. The rest are working part time because they could only find part-time work."

Source: http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2009/0709miller.html

United States Full Time Becomes Part Time

The latest June report had a decline in hourly work hours. This decline to an average work week of 33 hours (down 0.1). This is getting to the point where the U.S. is trailing the average work week of France.

Average work week salary also declined from $613.34 to 611.49. A couple bucks doesn't seem like much on an individual comparison; however when you add up the numbers it can very well lead to a jobless recovery.

Without consumer spending which is 70% of the United States economy; a jobless recovery seems to be more and more apparent.