The unemployment rate is a bogus number. The unemployment rate goes down because people fall off receiving unemployment benifits. The people are not looking for work, or has taken low paying jobs to make up for the lack of unempolyment checks. If you want a turer measure look at the payroll wages paid. Is this measure increasing? Dems or Reps who tout the unemployment rate are lying, uninformed or just plain stupid. The "real" unemployment rate is about 18%!