Unemployment

VP Biden is calling on Senator Bunning to drop his opposition to the so called jobs bill



. Vice President Biden took a shot at one of his former colleagues today for leading what he called a one-man filibuster against unemployment benefits.

Biden was discussing the accomplishments of the White House's Middle Class Task Force, which he heads. As he was touting the task force's successes over the last year, the vice president lamented that he was disappointed by one particular senator on Capitol Hill.

"Right now a single republican is blocking the extension of unemployment insurance which means if he succeeds one million people, one million people next month will be thrown off the unemployment rolls," Biden said.



The Department of Labor calls 60,000 households in the United States each month to determine who is employed and who is unemployed. This survey is known as the household survey.

The unemployment rate that is announced is mostly based on this survey. Anyone who works at least one hour a week is considered employed by the Labor Department.

The people collecting unemployment insurance are not counted because about only 35 percent of the unemployed are eligible for unemployment insurance in the United States.

I am not a cynic but could Biden be concerned that these one million people will be added to the rolls of the unemployed if they go off of unemployment insurance