U.S. unemployment is actually 25 – 30+%, representing a huge hidden talent pool! Where are the jobs?

This is the first in a series of Talent Stories from 2017 you may have missed.

I find some of this very disturbing, even shocking.

What are your thoughts??

According to Morningside Hill actual total U.S. unemployment was closer to 25 - 30%!

 This is not the BLS U-3 rate of 4.1% or the U-6 rate of 7.9%, but the continuation of lowest labor participation rates in modern times.

Today’s employment is not remotely like the mid-‘80s.

However, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics’ calculation and reports are based in the 1980’s Reagan era model.

Today’s “gig” economy and the acceleration of part-time, contractual and contingent workforce has neither been accounted for nor factored into BLS reporting. 

For those not following the U.S. employment market, some of the most enlightening and perplexing Morningside points were:

1.   A person laid off from a living wage job gets counted as 1 unemployed; however,

2.   If a person replaces the lost job with 3 part-time jobs it is counted as 3 new jobs.

3.   The bizarre Reagan era BLS “birth / death rate” adjustment  accounts for 93% of all jobs created since 2008; but,

4.   According to Quartz almost all new jobs (10,000,000) created 2005 – 2015 were part-time temporary alternative gigs.

If 25 – 30% unemployment is correct, it looks more realistic than the published U-3 rate of 4.1%. 

Is anyone following the surge of homelessness?

How does high unemployment align with business’s understanding of the “Talent Gap” crisis? 

In today’s “Talent Gap” era this is a vast untapped talent resource for those who understand it and can harness it.

Did you know less than 20% of the U.S. talent market is actually looking?

However, nearly all talent (100%) would welcome contact for a new position!

W

Next: What’s happened to the “Middle Class”?