http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2009/03/04/unemployment-rates-by-county/ Sociological Images encourages people to exercise and develop their sociological imaginations with discussions of compelling visuals that span the breadth of sociological inquiry. Thu, 24 May 2012 15:10:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2009/03/04/unemployment-rates-by-county/comment-page-1/#comment-8925 Gwen Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:13:07 +0000 http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/?p=7373#comment-8925 Well, the government thinks it's useful information to know about discouraged workers (those who have stopped actively looking for work) because it does provide additional information about the state of the economy, expected productivey and GDP, etc. I grew up in a rural community with many of these types of workers--they had applied and applied and applied for jobs, but everything had left our area. For various reasons--family ties, lack of skills that seemed likely to lead to better opportunities elsewhere, fear, whatever--many didn't move away, and after a while just joined the ranks of people who would fall in that category. If you just counted the number of unemployed in the way the U3 does, those people would be left out, which would misrepresent just how bad our local economy was, so I think it's an important number to know. Well, the government thinks it’s useful information to know about discouraged workers (those who have stopped actively looking for work) because it does provide additional information about the state of the economy, expected productivey and GDP, etc. I grew up in a rural community with many of these types of workers–they had applied and applied and applied for jobs, but everything had left our area. For various reasons–family ties, lack of skills that seemed likely to lead to better opportunities elsewhere, fear, whatever–many didn’t move away, and after a while just joined the ranks of people who would fall in that category. If you just counted the number of unemployed in the way the U3 does, those people would be left out, which would misrepresent just how bad our local economy was, so I think it’s an important number to know.

]]> http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2009/03/04/unemployment-rates-by-county/comment-page-1/#comment-8891 OP Minded Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:21:29 +0000 http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/?p=7373#comment-8891 I think the concept of counting folks who have "given up looking for work" in unemployment rates would be ridiculous. How could one EVER get employed again if you aren't even looking? Further, who the heck gives up looking for work? Really, what self respecting person would give up if you have a family to take care of? I think the concept of counting folks who have “given up looking for work” in unemployment rates would be ridiculous. How could one EVER get employed again if you aren’t even looking?
Further, who the heck gives up looking for work? Really, what self respecting person would give up if you have a family to take care of?

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