What’s the magnitude of our unemployment problem?

I don’t think I had a real sense of the magnitude of our current unemployment problem until I pulled out my trusty old calculator.

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.