The February job numbers are grim, as expected. The official unemployment rate is now 8.1%, with 650,000 Americans losing their jobs just last month. The number that is usually underreported, however, is the U-6 unemployment figure. This is a more realistic way to look at unemployment, as it counts all the people that want a job but gave up, all the people with part-time jobs that want a full-time job, all the people who dropped off the unemployment rolls because their unemployment benefits ran out.

This month’s U-6 number: 14.8% – or about 1 in 7 Americans are unemployed.

Consider the Great Depression, which had an unemployment rate of around 25% at the height of the depression in 1933, and you might get a clearer picture of how severe this crisis is. Take a look at the previous link for a timeline of the Great Depression and you might see some similarities to today.

To get a more detailed view of this month’s unemployment numbers, visit Mike Shedlock’s Global Economic Trend Analysis Blog.

At this rate, we are on track to lose over 7 million jobs this year. Ouch!