Zero Hedge Calculates Real Unemployment (12.2%) and Underemployment (22%) Rates; Democrats Shrug: 'You F***ed Up! You Trusted Us!'

Tyler Durden has carefully reexamined the nation's unemployment situation using population growth statistics that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) routinely ignores. The results are astonishing as he finds that real unemployment in the U.S. could be worse than that of Spain.

At 65.2%, the civilian employment participation rate is significantly lower than the 66.4% 20-year average.

But the U.S. population isn't static. The nearly straight line, above, represents the nation's population. But the second line, the civilian labor force, has grown at a much slower pace. The gap represents a growing class of the permanently unemployed and those who work under the table (e.g., illegal immigrants and others who pay no taxes). The group also represents an increasing pool of welfare and social service recipients who must be supported by a lower percentage of taxpayers.

Durden believes that the BLS has biased the data to skew the unemployment numbers -- and using the real population data, unemployment (U-3) is actually 12.7% (nearly 30% higher than the "official" 9.9%).

The underemployment (or U-6) rate is even more dire. It represent the "real" unemployment rate that many other countries use in their calculations. Durden states that our true unemployment measure is 22%; 34 million people who are "unemployed, marginally attached, plus total employed part time for economic reasons."

The average duration of unemployment is now a record high of 33 weeks (nearly eight months). Nearly half of the unemployed have been out of work for more than six months.

And the chart shows that this average out-of-work duration continues to skyrocket.

Democrats took a serious but typical recession and turned it into an utter disaster. Spending program upon spending program, debt upon debt, welfare payment upon welfare payment, earmark upon earmark, entitlement upon entitlement -- unemployment payments without end and always more regulations, more government-controlled industries and more taxes.

This level of irresponsibility is unprecedented in American history. It really is November or never to throw these bums out of office.