When the latest unemployment numbers came out, they sounded like a relative win for the U.S. economy. Given February’s battering storms, which closed businesses and roads for days at at a time, the unemployment rate was expected to go up. Instead, some people expressed relief that it stayed steady at 9.7 percent. But before we get too excited about essentially breaking even, we should check ourselves…or check our numbers. What we generally call the “unemployment rate” excludes many unemployed Americans, notably “discouraged workers” who have given up looking. Read More »