Are we in another great depression in terms of unemployment? If unemployment rate is calculated in the way it was done in 1930s, the current unemployment rate is closer to 16.5% rather than 10% forecasted by economists. During the great depression of 1930s, the unemployment rate was hovering around 25%.

Reuters article says that comparing today’s situation with that of 1930s is not far fetched. There is another twist to the calculation of unemployment rate. Unemployment stats don’t take discouraged workers, the workers that lost the hope of getting job and stopped looking for a job, into account while calculating unemployment rate. Thus, the real unemployment rate may be more than 16.5%.