A Way Out of No Way - Hardcoverby Michael Greene (Author) In December 2012, the U. S. Department of Labor classified 12. 2 million persons as officially unemployed. But that's only the tip of the iceberg. Almost 8 million folks were working part time involuntarily and another 6. 8 million had simply stopped looking for work. Neither of these latter two groups almost 27 million people is included in the official count of the unemployed released on the first Friday of every month.