Unemployment is likely to surge above 10 percent during the next few months as millions of “missing” workers return to the labor market.
This will pose a huge challenge for the Obama administration and congressional Democrats, who want to run in 2010 on the back of a strengthening economy.
Economist Mark Zandi expects the unemployment rate to float above 10 percent during the next few months as workers look to take advantage of improving opportunities.
“The increase in unemployment is a sign of a stronger job market, but it is also a sign of how weak the job market still is and vulnerable the recovery is to anything that might go wrong,” Zandi wrote in an e-mail to The Hill.
“Missing workers” are unemployed people who have stopped collecting benefits and stopped looking for work — thereby dropping off the radar. When they start looking for work again, they get counted as unemployed.
So, basically, the numbers will "officially" rise to the actual numbers that haven't been reported because these folks fell off the radar.
In other words, unemployment has been over 10 percent this whole time...just not officially.
Tell us something we didn't know.
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