Wall Street Journal (07/31/12) Neil Shah

According to Labor Department figures released late last week, states such as California are struggling not just with high unemployment, but also severe underemployment. California’s average unemployment rate from July 2011 through June 2012 was 11.2%, but its broader underemployment rate was far higher, at 20.3%. California has the biggest gap between its overall underemployment rate, the U-6, and a slightly narrower U-5 rate that includes discouraged and other workers but not those who work part-time but would prefer a full-time position.

The U.S., as a whole, has a 6.8 percentage-point difference between its 8.5% average unemployment rate and 15.3% underemployment rate. Some states that are performing near or better than the national average in general unemployment have bigger underemployment problems.