Unemployment is a tricky stat, which according to BLS conveniently excludes unemployed people who "haven't looked for a job in 4 weeks." And then knowing how difficult it is to pull hard information out of these poverty stricken areas, especially hidden homeless, I feel confident the whole picture is being blurred intentionally.

I live in a high poverty city with wondrously low "unemployment" but a high number of people who don't have jobs. The answer: if you can qualify for a job, yes you can get a job, but a lot of people do not qualify for anything worthwhile, so why try?