Total nonfarm job openings: 7,581,000
A: Unemployment level: 6,235,000
B: Not in labor force want a job now: 5,222,000
C: Not in labor force age 25-54: 22,015,000
A is the official unemployment level. To be counted in it you have to be counted in the labor force.
B is the number of people in addition to the unemployed who are unemployed but aren't counted as such because they are not in the labor force. These are the people unemployed longer than one year who say they still want a job when they are surveyed.
C is all the people of prime working age who aren't in the labor force and aren't counted as unemployed. Some of B are included in this number. This group averaged 21.3 million in both 2006 and 2007, before the shit hit the fan, and got as high as almost 24 million in 2015. It averaged 22.7 million last year. The data goes back only to 1982 but shows that in the 1980s and some of the 1990s that this group shrank during jobs recoveries just as it is shrinking now. There is lots of potential labor here sitting on the sidelines.
In any event, A + B means at least 11.5 million jobless with 7.6 million openings.
Advantage: employers.
P. S. I have seen the very same jobs with the very same companies advertized for years on end. How do they never get filled, hm?
