A month ago, it was announced that 1 in 6 job-wanting, working age Americans are not working. Now it is closing in on 1 in 5. Who is surprised about this morning's new unemployment numbers? If so, you are a person who does not know anyone, perhaps you have been forced to live in a basement for decades and therefore miss all kinds of wonderful sporting events. Officially, now, unemployment is at 9.8%! The official unemployment rate for Latinos is 12.7%; for black folks, it is 15.4%. Between August and September, 807,000 new people were counted as "not in the labor force." (Also, unemployment rose in the 16 nations that use the Euro, to 9.6%.) There are, officially, 15.1 million working-type people in the U.S. without any job at all! Related: 100 banks went bankrupt this year, so far, more than four times the number that went bankrupt last year! But 13.5% of the population is unable, or has given up, looking for work, and the underemployment rate is now a whopping 17%. These are great times in which we live. And here is an interesting footnote! 53,000 government jobs disappeared in September alone.