This does not mean that half a million people were necessarily added to the unemployment rolls.

Nearly two million people left the unemployment rolls.

Beyond that, the step will send thousands of workers onto already strained unemployment rolls.

Many economists estimate that last year's cutbacks added about 200,000 people to the unemployment rolls.

That was up 5 percent from December as 5,500 people were added to the unemployment rolls.

And don't forget the growing temporary-help industry, which keeps people off unemployment rolls between permanent jobs.

Still, nine million people are on the unemployment rolls, an increase of 700,000 over this time last year.

Such a plan would reduce the unemployment rolls by making it less expensive for corporations to hire new people.

All that Mitsui left behind was a long unemployment roll and a hole in the ground half a mile deep.

It also offers what is probably the least expensive way of keeping 3.5 million men off the unemployment roll while the economy seeks new footing.