A California congressman will introduce a bill soon to require the Labor Department to take into account “marginal” workers when tallying each month’s unemployment rate.
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R) told Investor’s Business Daily that he wants the number of those who have given up looking for work to be included in the rate.
“Guys like me want a way to know what the unemployment rate really is,” Hunter, a member of the Education and Workforce Committee, told the newspaper. “It is that simple. The unemployment rate is not really the 8.3% figure.”
“I don’t think most people even know there is an alternate way of calculating unemployment,” he added.
Last month’s jobless number of 8.3 percent excluded a record 2.81 million discouraged job seekers. If factored in, that rate would jump to 9.9 percent.
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