Yesterday the Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet (KEWDC) released some typically bleak data regarding the Commonwealth’s unemployment levels that, while legitimately bleak, don’t even come close to painting the actual, “face-of-death bleak” picture that is more in tune with reality.

Fayette County recorded the lowest jobless rate in the commonwealth at 8.5 percent. It was followed by Woodford and Ballard counties, 8.6 percent each; Oldham County, 8.9 percent; Calloway and McCracken counties, 9.2 percent each; Webster County, 9.4 percent; Boyd County, 9.5 percent; and Carlisle and Franklin counties, 9.6 percent each.

Magoffin County recorded the state’s highest unemployment rate — 18.8 percent. It was followed by Jackson County, 18 percent; Metcalfe County, 16.5 percent; Powell, Lewis and Bath counties, 16.3 percent each; Menifee County, 15.9 percent; Trigg County, 15.8 percent; Butler County, 15.6 percent; and Carter County, 15.5 percent.

Here’s the rub: The measure of unemployment utilized by the KEWDC is essentially the same metric utilized by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, known as U3, which is the standard “headline” measurement employed by the Federal government more or less since Regan redefined (and Clinton perpetuated) the very word to garner favorable support for the benefits of supply-side economics. It keeps things neat and shiny, more or less, and is easier to measure this way for bureaucratic purposes.

Generally speaking, U3 unemployment, as defined by the International Labor Organization, refers to those able-bodied persons actively seeking work who do not currently possess a job. Naturally, such a definition leaves out a broad range of individuals, and that’s kind of the point, which leads us to U4, U5, and U6 categories — the latter being the most inclusive: comprised of discouraged workers (those who’ve thrown up their arms and said “hell with it.”), marginally attached workers (those who would like to work but haven’t looked recently), and part-timers who want to work full time but cannot because the economy is hemorrhaging like a gut-shot driveby victim.

And then there are factors like declining purchasing power, wage stagnation and (lack of) access to health care, which — naturally or not — aren’t included but nonetheless contribute to the bigger, bleaker picture.

Thusly, the 18.8-percent rate reported in Magoffin County is geometrically higher under the holistic U6 definition — probably near 30-percent (!) or so. Same goes for every county, too.

Of course I’m no economist, and TI-83 calculators are far smarter than I am, but all you should get from this is simple (if you haven’t already come to this conclusion yourself), and that is things are always much worse than they appear, especially when there’s an arbitrary number attached to human suffering.