Unemployment is worse than you think

According to analysts, younger people typically maintain the greatest unemployment rate. In 1982, baby boomers – who would have been in their 20s and 30s – accounted for the highest unemployment rate while having the highest share of the labor force. That trend still exists today – with one exception. Boomers maintain the highest share of the labor force but have the lowest unemployment rate at an average 3.9 percent, based on the Center's weighted statistics.

"In 1982, the US population was substantially younger than it is today," according to the report. "Even in an otherwise identical economy, we would expect a younger population to have a higher unemployment rate than an older population would."

The second difference is statistical. The Current Population Survey (CPS) – the main survey used to measure the unemployment rate – is reaching a smaller portion of the population today versus 1982. It's likely to miss people who are not employed, according to the Center. "As a result, the official unemployment rate understates the unemployment rate today relative to 1982."

"The aging of the US population and the reduction in coverage rates of the main US labor-market survey mean that the official unemployment rate does not provide a completely consistent basis for comparing labor-market slack between the early 1980s recession and the current economic downturn," Schmitt and Baker write. "The current unemployment rate, therefore, is nearly identical to the rate reached in the year with the highest annual unemployment rate in the postwar period."