U-6 Unemployment

We've discussed U-6 Unemployment before.

To reiterate...

U-6 = Total unemployed plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force plus total employed part time for economic reasons as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force.

* Persons marginally attached to the labor force are those who currently are neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they want and are available for a job and have looked for work sometime in the past 12 months. Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached, have given a job-market related reason for not currently looking for work. Persons employed part time for economic reasons are those who want and are available for full-time work but have had to settle for a part-time schedule.

Basically, I look upon U-6 as the "real" unemployment number to keep an eye on.

As all of you reading this are no doubt already aware, U-3 - the "basic" unemployment number - rose to 9.6% last month from the previous month's 9.5%.

Interestingly enough... while U-3 "only" rose by 1/10th of a percent, U-6 rose by 1/5th of a percent.

While "basic" unemployment rose from 9.5% to 9.6%, "real" unemployment (broader... deeper...) rose from 16.5% to 16.7%.

What does this mean?

Nothing good - that's for sure!