Every month when the jobless numbers come out, Obama critics take pains to point out that the "official" number is very misleading. One of the major reasons is that the published unemployment rate does not include such "hidden" workers as those working part time who would like to work full time, and those who have given up looking for work. Reuters has a good piece today on the latter: Economists, analyzing government data, estimate about 4 million fewer people are in the labor force than in December 2007, primarily due to a lack of jobs rather than the normal aging of America's population. The size of the shift underscores the severity of the jobs crisis. If all those so-called discouraged jobseekers had remained in the labor force, August's jobless rate of 8.1 percent would have been 10.5 percent. The jobs crisis spurred the Federal Reserve last week to launch a new bond-buying program and promise to keep it running until the labor market improves. It also poses a...(Read Full Post)