Insights » Understanding Unemployment Statistics

The official definition of unemployment includes all persons who were able and wanting to work for the prior four weeks but who, for various reasons, have not worked. A more complete measure of unemployment includes people who became discouraged in their job search or who resorted to part-time work when they could not find a full-time job.

At 18.5%, Washington state’s so-called “shadow” unemployment rate –which includes unemployed, underemployed, underutilized and discouraged workers – is actually much worse than the state’s official unemployment rate, which averaged 9.8% for the period from the 4th quarter of 2010 through the 3rd quarter of 2011.

"Shadow" Unemployment, 4th Quarter 2010 - 3rd Quarter 2011
	Washingon	U.S.
Official unemployment rate	9.8%	9.2%
Discouraged and other workers marginally attached to labor force	1.7%	1.5%
Working part-time for economic reasons	7.0%	5.5%
Total	18.5%	16.2%

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