Broad Level of Unemployment Rate is at 13.5% in December 2008

The U-6 unemployment rate for December 2008 was also released by the BLS today. This figure includes the unemployed plus all marginally attached workers plus people who are working part-time for economic reasons as a percentage of the civilian labor force---It is also seasonally adjusted.

In layman's terms it shows the unemployed and the underemployed. And not only is the unemployment trend bad, it's getting worse as a quickening pace. As you can see in the chart below, the increase in broad unemployment was 90 basis points worse in December 2008 vs November 2008--this is the largest jump in the broad unemployment rate for the 15 years in which the BLS publishes data.

Click on Chart for a larger image