It is if you go solely by payroll jobs...
By that measure, my fiance, who started her own business in May, is unemployed. Never mind that her busienss is already doing well, and she will likely hire 1 or 2 people by the end of the year. More "illusory progress" according to the Dems at CrAP, I suppose.
Dubya's drones like to overhype the household data which includes struggling self-employed Americans working for lower pay and fewer (if any) benefits.
but if you add government jobs I bet the number is different. It would be interesting to do a Pajama survey of all the jobs created by HIPPA.
When are we going to stop using payroll as our means of determining employment? There's got to be a better way. Tax returns, maybe? I don't know, I'm not an economist. Any FReeper suggestions out there?