It Took Six Major Depressions and a Lot of Out-of-Work Americans to Create a National Unemployment Count
What the Monthly Reports Measure, What They Miss, and How They Were Established
Monthly public reports on jobs and the unemployment rate are such a staple of American civic life that it can seem as if they’ve always been with us. But these reports are relatively new, and their establishment was neither quick nor easy. In recent months, they’ve become a barometer of the virus and our economic recovery, or lack thereof. Which is why we’d do well to understand what they measure, what they miss, and how they were established.
For the first 60 years of the modern economy—roughly from 1873 to 1933—the …
