Inflation is out of control, most Americans are getting poorer due to the rapidly rising cost of living, the housing bubble has started to burst, and the commercial real estate market is a giant mess.  But employment is supposed to be our bright spot.  The Biden administration continues to tell us that the unemployment rate is less than 4 percent and that there are lot of jobs available for those that want them.  But is this really true?

To answer that question, it is imperative to understand that our government places unemployed persons into one of two categories…

Jobless people are classified into one of two categories by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)—either unemployed or not in the labor force. To be classified as unemployed in the month they are surveyed, people must be actively looking for work. If they are not actively looking, they are classified as not in the labor force.

Over time, the definition of "officially unemployed" has gotten more restrictive, and today only 6.097 million working age Americans are considered to be in that category.