Jun 23, 2011 17:55 EDT
By Sara Horowitz
The opinions expressed are her own.
The national employment figures are an economic bellwether. They profoundly affect U.S. markets, consumer spending, and even the fate of national elections. With so much at stake, you’d think we would be counting the workforce accurately. Unfortunately, we’re not.
The United States treats jobs as something turned on or off—employed or unemployed—but that binary view no longer reflects how Americans really work. Whereas in the middle of the 20th century industrial employees worked one job for one company, today, there are 42 million consultants, independent contractors, entrepreneurs and freelancers working multiple gigs for multiple clients.
Although independent workers were a full one-third of the U.S. workforce at last count (which was 6 years ago), they aren’t counted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in a consistent and ongoing way...
Full story:
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2011/06/23/why-our-employment-figures-are-wrong/?rpc=43
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