Gallup CEO Jim Clifton: US Department Labor Data on Unemployment Rate and Claims Is a 'Big Lie,' 10 Million New Jobs Are Needed
On Wednesday, Gallup's CEO Jim Clifton published an opinion piece Wednesday about the U.S. unemployment rate saying the data reported by the U.S. Department of Labor is misleading and dubbing it a "big lie" in the headline.
In the piece, Clifton explains that the rate of 5.6 percent unemployment is what has led many Americans to celebrate and is giving the White House a good look. Clifton states, however, that as many as 30 million Americans are currently without work or "severely" underemployed.
The article then explains the actual way that unemployment is calculated. For instance, if someone is unemployed and has given up on finding a job, or stopped looking in the last four weeks, that person is not counted in the unemployment rate, Clifton says.
Another shocking fact that Clifton shares in "The Big Lie: 5.6& Unemployment" is that if someone is out of work an performs at least one hour of work and is paid at least $20, they are not counted into the unemployment rate.
The CEO that people who want to work full-time but can only find part time work are not considered unemployment and thus not added into the unemployment rate that currently sits at 5.6 percent. He calls these people "severely unemployed."
"There's no other way to say this," he writes. "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."
Clifton says that the American dream is to have a good job, and Gallup defines a good job as 30 or more hours per week with a regular paycheck from an organization. He says that according to data, only 44 percent of the adult population has a good job.
Clifton ends by saying that the number of good jobs needs to be 50 percent or more, and 10 million new, good jobs need to be added so that America's middle class can be replenished.
What do you think of Clifton's statements? Are they truthful? Leave us a comment below and let us know.
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