Friday - December 02, 2011
Crunchy Crunchy Numbers
Unemployment Rate Falls to 8.6 Percent, Lowest Since March 2009
WASHINGTON – The unemployment rate fell last month to its lowest level in more than two and a half years, as employers stepped up hiring in response to the slowly improving economy.
The Labor Department says the unemployment rate dropped sharply to 8.6 percent last month, down from 9 percent in October. The rate hasn’t been that low since March 2009, during the depths of the recession.
Employers added 120,000 jobs last month. And the previous two months were revised up to show that 72,000 more jobs added—the fourth straight month the government revised prior months higher.
Still, one reason the unemployment rate fell so much was because roughly 315,000 people gave up looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed.
Sure. Sure, I believe it. Riiight. Let’s ignore how many of those newly added jobs are seasonal retail; extra help hired for the Thanksgiving to Christmas surge. Then let’s merely note in passing that the numbers are so much better perhaps because such a huge crowd of folks have finally used up their super-extended unemployment benefits. But hey, let’s completely ignore the utterly flawed counting system that considers people who no longer get an unemployment check to not be part of the workforce any longer. Nonsense. And don’t go saying that they’ve given up. They may not have; they’re just out of benefits.
You want more realistic numbers? Go to Social Security, and find out how many people between the ages of 15 and 70 have an SSN. Then have the IRS count how many folks reported an earned income. Now hit up the VA and the other side of Social Security and subtract off the folks who are listed as permanently disabled. That’s still not a perfect accounting, but it’s closer to the truth. Then watch those numbers go up and down month after month, year after year.
Posted by Drew458
Filed Under: • Economics • work and the workplace •
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