Tim Devaney
The Washington Times
4/18/2013
President Obama’s nominee to run the Labor Department on Thursday acknowledged during his Senate confirmation hearing the administration has understated the nation’s unemployment rate.
The Obama administration often touts slow-but-steady job growth and a declining unemployment rate that shrunk to 7.6 percent in March as proof the nation has moved beyond the recession and is headed in the right direction.
But that’s not the whole story, said Thomas E. Perez, the former Maryland labor secretary tapped by President Obama to run the U.S. Department of Labor.
Testifying before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Mr. Perez said a more accurate assessment of the job market would consider the unemployed who have stopped looking for jobs and those who have settled for part-time work.
With those factors added in, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found the jobless rate nearly doubles to 13.8 percent.
“In that sense, it understates the unemployment rate,” Mr. Perez, 51, said at the hearing…
The article continues at The Washington Times.
