Unemployment, recession, and depression, are all common terms in the subject of the economy. They are as well, at times, interrelated and one may have caused the other. However, it is not necessarily so all the time. Unemployment is measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The BLS does the measurement by surveying individual homes and numbering the unemployed contrasting them against the percentage of the employed population. The Bureau also reports on those who have no interest for work – these are discouraged workers who have abandoned already the idea of looking for work. So, these are people who are not working. Nevertheless, they aren’t counted among those unemployed, and thus, counted separately. If the number of this kind of discouraged unemployed people is on an increase, there is a possibility of looming recession.
On the other hand, the recession is happening when Gross Domestic Products is not growing or has been dropping for two consecutive quarters in a year. It only means that there is a steady loss of jobs as a result because companies and different producers are slowing down in terms of their produce. Of course, with this scenario in sight, unemployment becomes steady. Although economic depression is defined technically different by economists, it is real and can be felt today. Mike Whitney (contributor to Global Research), in his article, said that anybody can look around and see the signs of depression.
In “better times,” the American population occasionally opted for canned foods, but not anymore today. Because people are looking for better and cheaper ways to feed their families, more and more are deciding on processed food. The price of every food item in groceries is rising. And so, every unemployed person is technically, and in effect, depressed. No need to wait for more signs. It is here for every unemployed person.