[rory096]

>How is it a conspiracy?

>The unemployment rate has been massaged and manipulated to the point where you need to stop citing it as a serious measurement of anything other than the scope to which otherwise intelligent people can be deluded.

>The unemployment rate has been manipulated for various reasons and in various ways for years by politicians whos reputation is directly linked to the number.

Uh huh.

In any case, you might want to take a look at the 25-54 LFP. It currently sits at 82%, the same as the rate during the 2000s and two points shy of the all-time high during the height of the dot-com bubble. Prior to 1986 it had never reached this level.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS11300060

[ranci]

"Uh huh"? It would be a conspiracy to say that the unemployment rate does not have basically arbitrary rules built into it to discount people who are actually looking for work.

[rory096]

Which "people who are actually looking for work" are not included in U6 unemployment?

[hueving]

Elderly people are included in the ~35% you are talking about and most are not "actually looking for work".