NewsHour: Jobless Recovery: Non-Working Numbers

In Jobless Recovery: Non-Working Numbers, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer business correspondent Paul Solman reveals the inadequacy of government data related to unemployment. Official numbers do not take into account millions of unemployed persons who live on disability, incarcerated men, and those “discouraged” workers who no longer actively seek employment. Solman’s report suggests that the current unemployment rate is actually closer to that of the deep 1982 economic depression when 10.8% of eligible workers were unable find employment. His easy-to-understand explanations of complicated economic issues are presented with clarity, humor, and a laudable investigative spirit. And his wide ranging interviews with the unemployed put a personal face on lists, charts, and diagrams. From Executive Producer Lester M. Crystal, Deputy Executive Producer Linda Winslow, Senior Producer Jeffrey Brown, Producer/Writer Lee Koromvokis, and Writer/Correspondent Paul Solman, Jobless Recovery: Non-Working Numbers offers a fundamental reconsideration of the nation’s unemployment situation. For underscoring the importance of economic issues while cutting through their inherent complexities in a lucid manner, a Peabody Award goes to Jobless Recovery: Non-Working Numbers.