Is "Unemployment Rate" Really All That Good?

Well, yes, at a reported 4.4%, that's really very good.

However, let's cover The Donald's reign just as we covered The Commie Obozo's.  Let's talk about U-6.

...The U-6 rate is defined as all unemployed, plus "persons marginally attached to the workforce, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the labor force."

In other words: the unemployed, the underemployed and the discouraged.

The U-3 rate has in the past few months returned to the prerecession levels that economists consider full employment. The U-6 has seen significant improvement in that time, but still remains higher than before the recession....

So yah, it's better.  Not great, and certainly not as good as the 4.4 headline would suggest.  But it's better.