How bad is the economy? Despite what you see going on with the stock market, and the continuing talk about profits and green shoots, it’s pretty bad.

According to the official unemployment numbers, not quite 10 percent of the U.S. population is unemployed. But that unemployment number doesn’t include everyone who doesn’t have a job but wishes they had one.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) surveys only 60,000 households every month and asks them if they “have a job, are looking for a job, or have given up, or have gone back to school, or retired,” writes MSNBC.com senior producer John W. Schoen.

The government also surveys 150,000 businesses and government payrolls to find out how many jobs there are compared to prior months. When all is going well with the economy, these surveys can be somewhat accurate. But with what’s been going on, they may be way off. At least, that’s what some labor economists suspect. In September, Schoen reports that payroll data showed a loss of 263,000 jobs. The household survey showed a loss of 710,000 jobs.

According to the BLS, the September 2009 U-6 measure of unemployment stood at 17 percent. A year ago, it was at 10.6 percent.

If that wasn’t bad enough, some analysts and economists factor in long-term unemployed, the so-called “discouraged jobless,” who have been unemployed for more than a year and have fallen out of the BLS calculations. That’s how these economists get to 21.4 percent true unemployment.

Is the recession over? I’m not sure how it could be, not with 21 percent unemployment.

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