The unemployment rate only measures people who are out of a job and actively seeking work, it doesn't include people who have given up looking for work or people employed part time. The drop in U3 that was reported was most likely due to people stopping the search for new jobs (just giving up) or getting part time jobs. To find a more accurate figure of what the employable base of the country is doing you need to use another rate, U6. U6 has started to trend downard this month by 1% which might indicate the overall situation is starting to slightly improve, but in a recent BLS report we get this little tidbet that indicates something else:
"The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) continued to trend up in January, reaching 6.3 million. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of long-term unemployed has risen by 5.0 million." --The Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest Employment Situation Summary, released on Friday, February 5, 2010
This indicates that the number of GOOD (full time, good paying) jobs has shrunk by that amount and it continues to grow....trend up, more unemployed.
if it were a republican in the white house the MSM would be reporting how the real figures are and not the under 10% are unemployed.
How many times have we heard the MSM report the other millions or the % figures of the country who have lost unemployment , out of work, can’t get a job etc?