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Comment by forensic | Hacker News Reader

The main reason unemployment stats look that way is because people give up looking for work and are no longer counted in the stats.

Data is not wonderful when it is used to confuse and deceive rather than enlighten. Data becomes a tool of enslavement when a word like "unemployment" takes on an operational definition that does not reflect the public perception.

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Do you have any more reliable data that would contradict this data and support your own assertion that unemployment is actually increasing?

Its a fact that the data you provided does not take into account 'participation' drop off. If you want to continue presenting statistics like that, maybe you should find a set of data that encompasses the more obvious problems?

I'm sorry, I had assumed that the onus of proof lay with the person making the original (and countrary-to-popular-belief-and-best-available-statistics) claim that unemployment was still increasing.

Participation, of course, is a tricky beast. Sometimes people stop participating because they're despairing over being able to find a job, but they also retire, or get pregnant, or go back to university or (if immigrants) their home countries.

I think the onus of proof lies with the person seeking the truth.

He presented no statistics at all, you presented statistics that are clearly entirely ignoring a important figure.

Neither of you seem to be at all interested in seeking the truth, each just advancing their own personal agenda.

meh.

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