What is the real U.S. Unemployment Rate? Many times on the news they say the real unemployment rate is this or another news source says its another thing so who's really right. Officially the U.S. unemployment rate is 6.2 but the way they calculate it is not always accurate. The unemployment rate is calculated by averaging results from eight separate samples of the population, the theory says that the eight groups should have the likelihood of being unemployed but the don't.

In the first half of 2014 the newest group was 7.5% and the oldest was 6.1%. A gap of 1.4% is pretty big, they need to find a better way to calculate unemployment, because a 1.4% gap is way to high. Depending on which place you look the unemployment rate could be a lot higher than what the official average says but different sources calculate it differently so it is best to go of the official average.














http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-08-27/whats-the-unemployment-rate-new-research-suggests-we-have-no-idea

Consumer prices fell for the first time in august, the first monthly decline for inflation since April 2013. Inflation had picked up somewhat during the spring but seems to be bouncing back. The index was up 1.7% in August, a little lower than the 2% annual rise. I think that the inflation will pick back up to a 2% annual rise because it seems that it was just an off year for it. Hopefully Federal officials keep a close eye on the inflation measure.

 With tame inflation rates the Feds have the ability to keep rates low without risk of the economy overheating. The article also says that weak inflation is a symptom of a sluggish five year recovery. Hopefully income gains increase and unemployment lowers. Which will cause more consumer demand and strengthen the economy.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-consumer-prices-fall-0-2-in-august-1410957115