|
05-07-2012, 08:40 PM
|
|
|
The gentleman who wrote the supplied link was the thus not a political hack.....
"The unemployment rate is the most widely used and reported indicator of the health of labor markets in the United States and around the world. It has, however, very significant and well-known limitations that have never been clearer than they are now. Despite its decline, we have not made significant progress towards a healthy labor market and may have a long, long road ahead to a full recovery."
"April was a great illustration of what has happened in the labor market over the past couple years. In October of 2009, the unemployment rate peaked at 10 percent. If you noticed that the unemployment rate has improved significantly since then—falling to its current 8.1 percent—and saw that nearly 3.5 million jobs have been created, you might conclude that we've had significant economic recovery since then. You would be wrong."
" Due to this disengagement, the slight drop in the unemployment rate from 8.2 percent to 8.1 percent was actually a false signal. It was more bad news rather than good. To understand this, you need to first understand how the unemployment rate is calculated.
If you worked even one hour, and received any pay at all, you are considered employed. If you aren't employed, but available to work, and have attempted to get a job over the prior four weeks, you are considered unemployed. If neither of these applies, you are not considered part of the labor force, and are not counted in the unemployment rate. No matter how much you want to work or how hard you've tried to find a job, if you stopped searching in the past four weeks for any reason, then you weren't one of April's 8.1 percent unemployed. This explains why a lower unemployment rate doesn't necessarily mean there are more people employed."
Latest Jobs Reports Shows U.S. Economy Is Barely Treading Water - Economic Intelligence (usnews.com)
|