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Firstly, as many others point out, the official unemployment numbers are very skewed and don't reflect reality. Actual unemployment is more around 20%.
With that said, the elephant in the room isn't the unemployment rate, but that most of the jobs pay far less than they used to...
For example I know many people who once earned around $13-$15 back in the late 1990s who are lucky to earn $10 now - so not only have their wages not kept up with inflation, but have actually decreased in real dollars too - a double whammy!
The middle class (one can debate what that means; imho, earning enough in 35-40 hours a week without overtime to pay mortgage, decent car, utilities, food, etc and still have a decent chunk leftover for savings / vacation) has been hulled out and continues to be decimated...
The U.S. economy is becoming a banana republic much like the countries most imports come from; very rich and everyone else barely surviving. Not an accident - it's by design (various trade agreements, in particular, Mexico and China) by the power-elite. Many, such as Ross Perot, were very vocal about the consequences long-term of unfair foreign trade ...
On an aside, before someone chimes in about Americans don't work as hard, or need to work harder, etc to compete ... read up on "externalized costs" ...
Try competing with a worker in China who works in harsh conditions with few labor protections (child labor, long hours, no breaks, no workers comp, etc) in a less safe factory that can ignore U.S. environmental rules. Good luck with that ...
In short, so called free trade isn't free, but comes at the expense of "externalized costs" and labor arbitrage.
Our standard of living drops with lots of unemployment and lower wages while theirs improves slightly - and only slightly, because the power-elite takes most off the top; constant pressure to keep living standards low to prevent companies from leaving to the next low cost place, which are numerous.
Ron
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