14.3% of Americans Unemployed, Underemployed

According to a Bureau of Labor Statistics measure of unemployment and underemployment, known as the “job distress rate,” Americans who lack work constitute 14.3 percent of the workforce. That includes those who are unemployed plus “marginally attached workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers.” That’s almost double the official unemployment rate of 7.3 percent.

California clocks in at second nationally for all states regarding the job distress rate, at a whopping 18.3 percent, almost double the state rate in 2006, before the recession. Texas has a job distress rate of 11.6 percent, with Nevada leading the way at 19 percent.