I personally am in awe of how the math changed on the unemployment, such that, we fall far short of the 300,000+ jobs we need in December to keep our economy running and yet the official unemployment rate drops from 7% to 6.7%. While that number is deceptive in that, so many have stopped looking for work, the math continues to play to uninformed voters who are not aware of the U3, U4, U5 and U6 break out and think that 6.7% is better... when in actuality it's playing hide the pickle with the statistics.... ie., a lie. The U6 is the broadest view of unemployment and shows everything.
The U6 for December was 13.1%. The best way to understand unemployment is to understand U1 through U6 and to look at them all, and not just swallow the U3 numbers which are heavily reported. Most people will roll their eyes at trying to understand six different calculations of unemployment.
U1 : Percentage of labor force unemployed 15 weeks or longer.
U2 : Percentage of labor force who lost jobs or completed temporary work.
U3 : Official unemployment rate per ILO definition.
U4 : U3 + "discouraged workers", or those who have stopped looking for work because current economic conditions make them believe that no work is available for them.
U5 : U4 + other "marginally attached workers", or "loosely attached workers", or those who "would like" and are able to work, but have not looked for work recently.
U6 : U5 + Part time workers who want to work full time, but cannot due to economic reasons.