Social statistics may exaggerate the degree of hardship caused by labor market problems. Yet, in many ways social statistics underestimate the degree of hardship caused by extended unemployment, underemployment, and low wages. Therefore, new measures are needed to reassess long-term and cyclical labor market developments, the changing status of minorities, the interrelationships between family patterns and employment problems, the effectiveness of income transfers for the working poor, and alternative macroeconomic policies. The proposed hardship measurement and assessment system consists of three sets of core indicators to measure the adequacy of individual earnings, family earnings, and family incomes in terms of both the numbers who fall below minimum standards and dollar shortfalls relative to these standards. After using these measures to examine hardship trends over the period between 1974 and 1980, researchers determined that the number who suffer severe hardship as a result of labor market problems experienced during the year far exceeds average annual unemployment. In addition, the burdens of hardship are even more maldistributed than are those of unemployment. (Appendixes to the report include technical details of the hardship measures and hardship data for the period from 1974 through 1980.) (MN)