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2/3/15, "The Big Lie: 5.6% Unemployment," Gallup, Jim Clifton, Chmn. and CEO
"There's no other way to say this. The official unemployment rate,
which cruelly overlooks the suffering of the long-term and often
permanently unemployed as well as the depressingly underemployed,
amounts to a Big Lie.
And it's a lie that has consequences, because the great American
dream is to have a good job, and in recent years, America has failed to
deliver that dream more than it has at any time in recent memory.
A good
job is an individual's primary identity, their very self-worth, their
dignity -- it establishes the relationship they have with their friends,
community and country. When we fail to deliver a good job that fits a
citizen's talents, training and experience, we are failing the great
American dream.
Gallup defines a good job as 30+ hours per week for an organization
that provides a regular paycheck. Right now, the U.S. is delivering at a
staggeringly low rate of 44%,
which is the number of full-time jobs as a percent of the adult
population, 18 years and older. We need that to be 50% and a bare
minimum of 10 million new, good jobs to replenish America's middle
class.
I hear all the time that "unemployment is greatly reduced, but the
people aren't feeling it." When the media, talking heads, the White
House and Wall Street start reporting the truth -- the percent of
Americans in good jobs; jobs that are full time and real --
then we will quit wondering why Americans aren't "feeling" something
that doesn't remotely reflect the reality in their lives. And we will
also quit wondering what hollowed out the middle class."
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