Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Actually, the household figures were much better than the establishment survey. The number employed increased 227,000 from October, but that is still down 362,000 from September. It seems to be indicative of a lot of seasonal flux in hiring and layoffs. Usually, the household survey will lead the establishment survey.
"In November, both the number of unemployed persons, at 15.4 million, and the unemployment rate, at 10.0 percent, edged down."
That's entirely due to 291,000 being reclassified as NOT IN LABOR FORCE; i.e., unemployed and not looking for work last month. It means that they've given up temporarily.
^ It is this kind of numbers dance that pretty much makes all these kinds of articles useless and irrelevant. People distort, misrepresent, and outright lie in order to make numbers say what they want them to say.
You're right. The fact that 291,000 people quit looking for work does not mean that they are no longer unemployed.
U3 stats are misleading when we're talking about true unemployment because it ignores the people who were forced to accept part time hours.
A better measure of unemployment is U6, but even that is incomplete because it doesn't count unemployed contractors (1099 employees), fresh grads/teenagers who can't find jobs, undocumented workers, nor the people who were forced to dip into Social Security earlier than they would have liked.
If you took the time to count all these people up, it wouldn't surprise me a bit to see the true unemployment number hovering around 25%.
U3 stats are misleading when we're talking about true unemployment because it ignores the people who were forced to accept part time hours.
A better measure of unemployment is U6, but even that is incomplete because it doesn't count unemployed contractors (1099 employees), fresh grads/teenagers who can't find jobs, undocumented workers, nor the people who were forced to dip into Social Security earlier than they would have liked.
If you took the time to count all these people up, it wouldn't surprise me a bit to see the true unemployment number hovering around 25%.
Right. That's another reason that all of these numbers are skewed and can be misrepresented, strictly for the sake of political gain.
We should probably be looking at a bigger picture, and trying to discern trends.
While I truly hope that the trend is toward less unemployment and an improving economy, I'm not sure that's actually the trend.
"In November, both the number of unemployed persons, at 15.4 million, and the unemployment rate, at 10.0 percent, edged down."
Yeah, right! Like a well-respected law professor who heads the Congressional Oversight Panel, who's been fighting for the little guy for 10+years has less credibility than the federal government, who lies to us every chance it gets!!! You're just yanking our collective chain, neil. You don't believe government stats any more than you do the man in the moon so enough already!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Like a well-respected law professor who heads the Congressional Oversight Panel, who's been fighting for the little guy for 10+years has less credibility than the federal government, who lies to us every chance it gets!!! You're just yanking our collective chain, neil. You don't believe government stats any more than you do the man in the moon so enough already!
