But there’s another statistic that’s even more troubling. It’s for underemployment. Underemployment describes those people who have jobs, but their jobs are lesser skill or experience level than they’re trained and qualified for… and definitely not sufficient to keep them out of the red financially.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics, underemployment in November 2009 was at a 15-year high of 17.5%.

Many people who are underemployed seek out part-time or temporary work. Websites such as TempJobCity.com come to the aid of those people and helps them sort through their options and opportunities. Plus each city has a network for these types of opportunities. You just need to be creative about finding them.

Some people, finding that part-time or temporary work is insufficient to give them what they need, look to starting a business of their own.

Although the name of this website and my program is called From Unemployed To Self-Employed, it could as easily be called From UNDERemployed To Self-Employed. The information is the same. The lessons are the same. The process of starting a business is the same.

It’s simply a matter of deciding to start!

When I logged on to find out the weather for today’s parade on Broadway — the Yankees celebrating their World Series win — the news headlines were not only surprising, they were shocking.

Just yesterday, I remember reading several news reports on the great recovering Wall Street is making.

Today, however, the headlines center around the 190,000 new jobs lost in October. That takes the unemployment rate to 10.6% — the highest in 26 years.

There’s always some lack of agreement about the accuracy of numbers. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics may use a different definition of “unemployed” than the rest of the world. I guess that really doesn’t matter. Any way you look at it, that’s a lot of people who are not working.

There’s another side to the unemployment crisis that people don’t seem to be talking about. That is the number of people who are under-employed as a result of the economy. Those who are under-employed accept positions below their skill and experience levels. Previously they might have held a position as a manager. Now, they’re working in a clerical position.

Because something is better than nothing… because they have no other options… and because competition for jobs is so stiff, those who are under-employed accept positions that pay them less than they were used to earning before the economy tumbled.

People in business have their own challenges. Business these days is tough. Sales are down. Expenses are up. But people in their own business have greater flexibility than those who are under-employed. A business owner can become more aggressive with sales, find new ways to operate more efficiently, open new territories, find new products and services to offer, and so on.

The person who is unemployed or under-employed is stuck — waiting for someone else to take the initiative.

Who is at greater risk? The person who is unemployed? The person who is under-employed? Or the person who is self-employed?

Out of curiosity, I searched the internet to find out how much average adult workers in the U.S. were earning. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the average adult full-time worker in 2005 earned $39,336. (That number is four years old, but I felt it would serve my purpose.)

In some ways, that $39,336 was higher than I thought it would be; in others, it was lower.

I don’t know what made me think about it, but I wanted to know the total impact to all those who are currently unemployed.

So I multiplied $39,336 by 14,500,000 jobless people. The grand total was a staggering $570,372,000,000. Yes, $570 billion dollars missing out of the pockets of families like yours and mine.

Well, I took a step back. Statistics are sometimes deceiving.

This, of course, was total annual income. On the one had, it was obvious that not everyone would be unemployed for an entire year. On the other, it didn’t take into consideration that when people are reemployed, they often tend to accept a lower salary.

Then, as I was reasoning through this, another question came to me. How much does the economy need to turn around in order for businesses large and small to afford to add $570,372,000,000 in annual payroll dollars?

I didn’t know where to start in order to compute that. So the answer I’m using (not statistical) is “too much.”

When I hear reports of the economy getting better – which, of course, I hope it does sooner than later – I’m glad to hear those reports.

But I’m always reminded that the people who are earning an average of $39,336 a year are the last in our capitalistic society to rebound. In our trickle down economy, people who need the jobs the most… the ones who need money now… are the last ones in line.

The New York Times: Unemployment in California at 12%, Highest in Nearly 70 Years

Forbes.com: NC jobless rate remains near 11 percent in August

Associated Press: 42 states lose jobs in August, up from 29 in July

CNBC: State Unemployment Keeps Rising; Three Hit Record Highs

The Progressive Pulse: NC unemployment dips slightly…to a still alarming rate of 10.8%

And then I came across this blog posting by Mark Lacter at LAObserved.

Kind of a misery loves company thing when it comes to the August jobs picture. Three states had rates higher than California’s 12.2 percent: Rhode Island (12.8 percent), Nevada (13.2 percent), and the grand-daddy of them all, Michigan (15. 2 percent). Perhaps more revealing: 14 states have an unemployment rate in the double digits and 27 states posted increases. By the way, California’s 12.2 percent is a postwar high (that’s World War II for the youngins’). All these numbers, of course, are only starting points for assessing the true employment picture. Within portions of L.A. County, for instance, unemployment is way higher than the county’s 12.3 percent overall. The City of Commerce had the highest unemployment rate in the county, at 22 percent.

While the government and the Fed continue to report that things are getting better and that the economy is returning to normalcy, I again remind everyone that ours is a trickle-down economy.

Prosperity returns first to those on the mountaintop. The lower you are in the pecking order, the longer it takes to find any sense of normalcy.

Don’t take my word for it. Read accounts of the years following the Great Depression. Employment started to grow again in 1944-1945 – 15 years after the crash in 1929. It was a long haul for many.

Waiting and hoping that things will get better is not an action step. Seek out alternatives that leverage your skills, experience, and aptitudes.

The article went on to say, “Some economists say it will take at least four years for the jobless rate to drop down to a more normal range of 5 percent.” The way I read that is “for a lot of Americans, the wait to become employed again could take an enormous amount of time.”

But I believe that when it comes to pain, unemployment alone doesn’t tell the whole story. Those who are jobless aren’t the only ones suffering.

There are also millions more who are underemployed… and even more who have taken partial pay cuts of varying degrees. The media doesn’t talk about them. Congress doesn’t address them. The President doesn’t seem to give them much attention. Yet they are hurting… maybe not as much as someone who is without any income, but they are feeling the pain.

One salesman I know works primarily on commission. He told me that his commissions are down more this year than last. It has taken a huge bite out of their household income. No vacations. Nothing extra. The family analyzes every expenditure.

A woman I know here the New York City told me she and her husband have been digging into their savings over the past two years to cover what she termed “out of the ordinary expenses.” She realizes that not only do they need to get their household earnings back up to the prior level, but they also need to replace the savings they’ve been depleting.

If you’re reading this blog, you know me — that I am an entrepreneur. I always have been and always will be. I don’t know anything else (except, of course, early in my career when I was doing time in Corporate America).

I believe more strongly today than ever that I’d rather be on my own — in my own business — than putting control of my life and personal finances in the hands of any employer.

But people who are not yet entrepreneurs run for the hills when they hear the words “self-employed.” Would it surprise you to know that I believe that everyone (well, almost everyone) has the potential to be self-employed?

I believe that it is possible to walk before you run… to start small… test the waters… and then, when your business idea starts to prove itself, go full speed ahead — more in control of your own destiny than ever before.

So I say, “Try it. You’ll like it.”

Out of curiosity, I searched the internet to find out how much average adult workers in the U.S. were earning. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the average adult full-time worker in 2005 earned $39,336. (That number is four years old, but I felt it would serve my purpose.)

In some ways that $39,336 was higher than I thought it would be; in others, it was lower.

I don’t know what made me think about it, but I wanted to know the total impact to all those who are currently unemployed.

So I multiplied $39,336 by 14,500,000 jobless people. The grand total was a staggering $570,372,000,000. Yes, $570 billion dollars missing out of the pockets of families like yours and mine.

Well, I took a step back. Statistics are sometimes deceiving.

I reasoned… this, of course, was total annual income. On the one had, it was obvious that not everyone would be unemployed for an entire year. On the other, it didn’t take into consideration that when people are reemployed, they often tend to accept a lower salary.

Then, as I was reasoning through this, another question came to me. How much does the economy need to turn around in order for businesses large and small to afford to add $570,372,000,000 in annual payroll dollars?

I didn’t know where to start in order to compute that. So the answer I’m using (not statistical) is “a lot.”

When I hear reports of the economy getting better – which, of course, I hope it does sooner than later – I’m glad to hear those reports.

But I’m always reminded that the people who are earning an average of $39,336 a year are the last to rebound. In our trickle down economy, people who need the jobs the most are the last ones in line.

According to the report, the number of Americans who have fallen at least 30 days behind on their home loan payments jumped 44% in the second quarter from a year ago.

That puts delinquencies at a record 9.24% of mortgages, according to the National Delinquency Report from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

Then, today, at the Kansas City Fed’s annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the global economy is beginning to emerge from recession after “aggressive” action by central banks and governments.

“Economic activity appears to be leveling out, both in the United States and abroad, and the prospects for a return to growth in the near term appear good,” he said. “The economy is on the verge [emphasis mine] of growing again.”

I am now, always have been and always will be an optimist. But I’m also a realist.

The optimist in me knows that ultimately everything will be fine. The realist in me reminds me that being on the “verge” of growing again means that it will be a long time before many ordinary people like you and I are “back to normal.”

I spoke with an unemployed marketing executive here in New York last week. He’s been out of work for six months. He has high hopes that something will break in the near future. And words like Bernanke’s are encouraging to him.

But Tom (not his real name) realistically shared with me the he expects that when he finally is employed, he will be making less than he was before.

In addition, he realizes that not only will he need to learn to live on less, but he will also have less money coming in with which to replace his now dwindled savings and depleted cash reserves.

Now, here’s what disturbs me the most. Tom is a really bright guy. He’s talented. He’s smart. He’s ambitious. In his last job, he was managing a department of four people. And they produced outstanding work.

When I think about this, I wonder why it is so difficult for Tom to picture himself in his own business, operating his own marketing company, or becoming a marketing agency.

The skills required are exactly the same.

Behind that 14,500,000 statistic are unemployed victims of the economy. They represent stories of real people and real families who we caught by a thundering storm they could not prevent.

Their stories represent financial hardships. Their stories tell of the emotional roller coaster, excited one day when a new job seems possible or saddened the next when they get the bad news that someone else was hire.

Their stories must express anger and fear as they watch their dreams disappear along with their financial security.

And their stories must be filled feelings of lack of worth when, through no fault of their own, they were tagged as one of employees that needed to go.

I can’t imagine what those feelings would be like.

I’ve never been fired or laid off from a job. I’m not bragging. The reason is simple. It’s been over 30 years since I held a real job and worked for someone else.

During those 30 years I’ve been self employed – working in my own businesses. Sometimes, my businesses were substantial, if you call a retail business with 18 employees substantial… or an advertising agency with 8 employees significant.

Mostly, it was just me working alone and relying on a number of loyal and trusted subcontractors.

I suppose I’ve always felt secure because I didn’t have a job. I couldn’t allow myself to become complacent. I couldn’t sit back and wait for something to happen… or a boss to step out of his office and hand me a juicy bonus check.

I was the driver. The responsibility to steer the boat, to determine its course, and to keep the wind in the sails was all mine.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Severe budget crunches afflicting U.S. states will put the brakes on the national economy by as much as seven-tenths of a percent of Gross Domestic Product in the next 12 months, according to a Goldman Sachs report.

That is a reversal from the usual pattern, when states and municipalities can help cushion a national decline that crimps GDP, the broadest gauge of a nation’s goods and services, according to the report, published on Friday.

Most states are obligated by law to balance budgets, forcing them to slice spending at the start of a downturn.

This time, however, many state budgets were overtaken by events beyond their control. Many states were still increasing spending, in real terms, through the third quarter of 2008, a full nine months into the recession, the report said.

The U.S. stimulus plan approved in February will fill in about two-thirds of the $121 billion of the total budget hole that the Denver-based National Conference of State Legislatures said U.S. states face in fiscal 2010, according to Goldman’s estimates.

“Finding $40 billion to $45 billion in additional budget savings might seem like child’s play after the experience of the past year,” the report said.

“However, we expect this amount to balloon as revenue shortfalls persist in an anemic recovery, with real GDP only rising about 1-1/4 percent between now and the middle of 2010.”

Most U.S. states end their fiscal year on June 30.

The current recession has already outlasted all but two post-World War Two downturns. Goldman said states may have to raise taxes or reduce spending by $80 billion to $100 billion, partly because they have already tapped rainy day funds.

STEEP DROP IN TAX REVENUES FORESEEN

Personal income tax revenues could be disappointing, falling 10 percent to 15 percent or $32 billion to $47 billion below projections in the next 12 months, Goldman said, citing falling employment and wage “stagnation.”

“Sales tax receipts are apt to weaken further, also surprising officials,” Goldman said.

The report forecast that nominal consumer spending will rise only 0.6 percent. That means states could see sales tax revenue sag 2 percent instead of growing at the 3 percent clip that states are expecting.

Corporations likely will pay less in taxes “though the magnitude of the surprise should not be large,” as states only receive about $44 billion from this source, Goldman said.

At both the state and local level, the housing market remains a risk. Many counties, cities and towns rely heavily on the property tax for funds.

“Risks tilt to the side of a larger drag if the economy disappoints or if local jurisdictions suffer losses in property tax revenue,” the study said.

However, the rise in the unemployment rate from 9.4 percent in May wasn’t as sharp as the expected 9.6 percent. Still, many economists predict the jobless rate will hit 10 percent this year, and keep rising into next year, before falling back.

All told, 14.7 million people were unemployed in June.

If laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have settled for part-time work are included, the unemployment rate would have been 16.5 percent in June, the highest on records dating to 1994.