DETROIT, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- The official jobless rate in Detroit falls far short of measuring the city's true economic morass, Mayor Dave Bing and others said.
While attending a jobs summit in Washington earlier this month, Bing said the unemployment rate in the Motor City was "closer to 50 percent," than the official jobless rate of 27 percent, The Detroit News reported Wednesday.
Counting discouraged workers who have given up looking for work, workers forced into retirement by company layoffs due to the recession, students and those working part time because no full-time work is available, unemployment in Detroit, unofficially, is 44.8 percent, the News said.
University of Michigan economist George Fulton said, "the qualitative point (Bing) was making is correct. There is more unemployment out there than is officially recorded, and it's a very serious situation."
In a statement, Bing said, "the statistics tell part of the story, but we can't run from the reality that the need for jobs and investment is far greater than any statistic could measure."
