But what is reported is just the "good" numbers.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/eco...l?hpid=topnews

I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for the next revision.

It's the same fucking number they've been reporting for the last 50 years, but now suddenly it's smoke and mirrors?

You addressed it earlier:

QFT

There have been slackers on unemployment for years too, but no one addresses it except Delay. By the way, Delay is not in power anymore, he became unemployed in 2008.

I am technically not unemployed. I am on sick-leave.
The right-wing tabloid press in this country would paint me as a poorly educated dole-scrounger. I left school at 16, despite all the benefits of attending a grammar school. I walked out of a marriage. I quit a well-paying job. I was lucky enough to move back in with my parents, who qualify for nothing for housing me because they are pensioners. These are broadly sketched situations, which in no way reflect my life.

On the flip side, I have saved the Govt money by living back at home. For not needing to have 24 hour care. When I was at my worst I had Crisis Support, OR the 'rents were around, OR I came to the Cellar. And sometimes that meant AND rather than OR.

I'm paying back my debts with my benefits. The fear of those debts made me self-harm in Leicester and in Greenwich. Far better for the economy to make payments!

And now I am a volunteer two full working days a week in a school and will be for another day for a political party. AND have taken on some of the burden of care (of my Grandad) from my Mum. I say burden because she's not 37 as I always assume. I am 37, she's retired. She doesn't resent caring for her Dad, but of course she is slowing down.

I dunno. I'm probably saying what most people think. That the people they know on benefits aren't slackers. That they have an illness that they are working through, that they have always worked (me? 16 years) that it's not "us" they mean but "them".

All I would say is that there IS a poverty trap. I'm not in it, but I wasn't BORN into it. I was born into a family with a good work ethic and a strong belief in the power of education. I'm a hard worker fallen on crummy times because of my mental health.

Please don't assume everyone who needs help is a loser. So many people need just that - help. I needed time. I got it thanks to my (not rich) parents. I'd have my own place if I had a kid, but I don't resent that. I'd be far worse off if I'd squeezed one out at 17.

Community and society are good words. If family fails, they are the next best thing. And the lack of them imo is the main reason for urban crime.

Well, ya' know, I would, but you see, I'm not able to work.

I think right now there are weird ways of counting. If someone is on Fed extensions, they are not in the U3 number (from what I understand) but are counted in the U6 which also includes part time workers who want full time work.
I admit, I could easily be wrong in how I understand it all.

Long, blah blah info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment

The source.