Real Unemployment Rate Much Higher

Economist Peter Morici writes for The Hill that current government unemployment figures at 6.1 percent severely understate true unemployment. Add the underemployed who work part-time when they'd prefer full-time, the discouraged workers who have no job but no longer look, factor in government programs providing disincentives to work (food stamps, disability, Medicaid, Obamacare, rent and mortgage assistance), and the total not working is around 15 percent.

Now add people who are in college or other post-secondary education but shouldn't be, acquire debt doing so, and exit with degrees providing no assistance in finding work and the total comes to about 18 percent. A telling quote:

The economy has created only about 6 million new jobs during the Bush-Obama years, whereas the comparable figure during the Reagan-Clinton period was about 40 million. A recent study by the Center for Immigration Studies indicates that virtually all the new jobs created since 2000 went to immigrants.