The latest national unemployment numbers were released this morning.  As is often the case, to get a full understanding of the real status of unemployment, clarification of what the numbers mean is critical, as Hood gives us here.

On today’s numbers the Weekly Standard offers this:

While the Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report released this morning showed unemployment unchanged at 7.6 percent, the broadest measure of unemployment, the U-6 rate (seasonally adjusted), jumped to its highest level since February 2013, from 13.8 percent to 14.3 percent.  

The U-6 rate includes “all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons,” including discouraged and underemployed workers, as well as the unemployed. The rate is only a half-point lower than the 14.8 percent rate a year ago in June 2012.