Unemployment

From Conservapedia

Unemployment is when people are unable to find jobs at the prevailing wages for their skills and experience. Economists refer to this as "involuntary unemployment."

The U.S. Department of Labor publishes monthly statistics on the unemployment rate, but that measures only people who have lost their job in the last six months. Individuals who have been out of work for more than six months are not counted in this statistic, and in some fields (such as technology) the unemployment rate for persons over 45 years old can be as high as 80%.

At election time, unemployment is often portrayed as a great evil, but Milton Friedman said,

All of the progress that the US has made over the last couple of centuries has come from unemployment. It has come from figuring out how to produce more goods with fewer workers, thereby releasing labor to be more productive in other areas. It has never come about through permanent unemployment, but temporary unemployment, in the process of shifting people from one area to another. [1]

As of August 2007 the US Seasonally Adjusted Unemployment Rate was down to 4.6%. [2]