[conistonwater]

One further thought: I was looking at https://fred.stlouisfed.org/release/tables?rid=50&eid=4786, and it seems that both the unemployment rate, and the U-{1,2,3,4,5,6} measures are approximately at their historical values right now. So it seems that when the unemployment rate shows unemployment at normal historical levels (5% is about the equilibrium rate), the other underemployment rates show the same thing, which makes using the unemployment rate okay. So I think there is quite some danger of looking at the data, seeing what it shows, and not believing it (thus "dismissing" it).