U3, the official unemployment rate, is an inadequate gauge of labor-market slack and the extent to which it misinforms …, during the Great Recession it exceeded U3 by 7 percentage points for three years. Moreover, the U6-U3 gap is magnified among … disadvantaged groups such as minorities, youth, and for the less educated. For instance, in January 2011 the U6-U3 gap among African …