For the spouter who thinks unemployment is low: The official "unemployment rate" is referred to as the U3 rate which is currently around 5.3 percent. The U3 includes individuals who are unemployed and actively looking for work. The U6 rate is over 12 percent. The U6 includes those unemployed who have stopped looking for work and those employed part-time who would like to be full-time. The U6 statistic is the one that was in use during the 'Great Depression' and should be used for all comparisons to that period.