Veronique de Rugy is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Writing for National Review’s the corner, Veronique asks How’s That Stimulus Working?

The stimulus was supposed to bring back the jobs and keep unemployment below 8.8 percent, remember? Unfortunately, the reality is quite different. For one thing, unemployment is still flirting with the 10 percent mark. Also, as we can see on the chart below, long-term unemployment has been growing significantly since the beginning of the recession — and the passage of the stimulus bill and other job bills didn’t change the trend.

Ms. de Rugy points out that at the start of 2008, only 18.3 percent of unemployed workers had been unemployed 27 weeks or more. Today that statistic includes six and a half million workers, or 44.1 percent of the unemployed. To give a frame of reference, today would mark the 27 week anniversary for someone laid off October 20, 2009.

Ms. de Rugy goes on to point out that statistics provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics do not include long-term discouraged workers. Fortunately, we have Shadow Government Statistics which tracks these statistics (and more). Adjusting for workers that are so discouraged that they have quit looking for employment (but would take a job if one was available) show real unemployment is much, much higher than the government would have you believe:

That’s right. Real unemployment is solidly above 20 percent. Stimulus anyone?

Note: Ms. de Rugy publishes weekly analysis (complete with chart) every week, which can be accessed here.

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