(Undated) -- The unemployment rate may be much higher than the official ten-point-two-percent figure released Friday by the Labor Department. The New York "Times" reports in reality, more than one out of every six workers was unemployed or underemployed in October. That means 17-point-five-percent of the work force is unemployed, topping the previous post-Depression high of 17-point-one-percent in December of 1982. The figure includes the officially unemployed, as well as those who have looked for work in the last four weeks. It also includes discouraged workers, who have looked in the past year, as well as millions of part-time workers who want to be working full time.
Economists says the rate is highest today in states that had big housing bubbles, like California and Arizona, or that have large manufacturing sectors, like Michigan, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island and South Carolina. In those states, unemployment is closer to 20-percent. Officially, nearly 16 million people are now unemployed and more than seven million jobs have been lost since late 2007, according to the Labor Department.
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