Real Unemployment Rate Is 18 Percent

The Labor Department reported the economy added only 209,000 jobs in July. The unemployment rate rose to 6.2 percent, but that hardly tells how tough the labor market has become for ordinary folks.

The unemployment rate may be down from its recession peak of 10 percent, but much of this results from adults, discouraged by the lack of decent job openings, having quit altogether. They are neither employed nor looking for work.

Only approximately half of the drop in the adult participation rate can be attributed to the Baby Boom generation reaching retirement age. Lacking adequate resources to retire, a larger percentage of adults older than 65 are working than they were before the recession.

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