Little-Acorn
08-07-2009, 12:46 PM
The unemployment percentage you keep hearing about, is the percentage of the populace qualified to work, who are without jobs and are currently trying to find work.
Under Obama, half a million have now given up that search. So the number of "unemployed", by that definition, has actually gotten smaller. Even though the economy has lost another 247,000 jobs while the number of employable people has increased.
Love that numbers game...... :dance:
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http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-unemployment-drops-well-sort-of-2009-08-07
U.S. unemployment drops ... sort of
Aug 7, 2009, 11:52 a.m. EST
By MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Friday's nonfarms employment report out of Washington is a classic of the genre.
The Labor Department report showed U.S. unemployment fell in July to 9.4% even as the economy lost another 247,000 jobs, the smallest decline in nearly a year. See related story.
Even a cursory glance at the numbers tells you something's missing. That something, of course, being the number of people who gave up looking for work. Because that figure exceeded the number of jobs lost by nearly 200,000, the unemployment rate actually fell.
A win is a win, no matter how ugly, and the headline number did go down.
And the financial markets are dutifully celebrating the fact that the pace of job losses is slowing. See Market Snapshot.
But the underlying data are worrisome indeed, in as much as they indicate just how fragile a recovery the U.S. is likely to experience when things finally do start growing again.
It'll be hard to rebuild the economy quickly with the ranks of the chronically unemployed at post-Depression highs.
-- Tom Bemis, assistant managing editor
Under Obama, half a million have now given up that search. So the number of "unemployed", by that definition, has actually gotten smaller. Even though the economy has lost another 247,000 jobs while the number of employable people has increased.
Love that numbers game...... :dance:
---------------------------
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-unemployment-drops-well-sort-of-2009-08-07
U.S. unemployment drops ... sort of
Aug 7, 2009, 11:52 a.m. EST
By MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Friday's nonfarms employment report out of Washington is a classic of the genre.
The Labor Department report showed U.S. unemployment fell in July to 9.4% even as the economy lost another 247,000 jobs, the smallest decline in nearly a year. See related story.
Even a cursory glance at the numbers tells you something's missing. That something, of course, being the number of people who gave up looking for work. Because that figure exceeded the number of jobs lost by nearly 200,000, the unemployment rate actually fell.
A win is a win, no matter how ugly, and the headline number did go down.
And the financial markets are dutifully celebrating the fact that the pace of job losses is slowing. See Market Snapshot.
But the underlying data are worrisome indeed, in as much as they indicate just how fragile a recovery the U.S. is likely to experience when things finally do start growing again.
It'll be hard to rebuild the economy quickly with the ranks of the chronically unemployed at post-Depression highs.
-- Tom Bemis, assistant managing editor