Phony cheer in unemployment numbers

American Thinker ^ | 12/07/2012 | Thomas Lifson

[SeekAndFind]

Obama partisans are hailing the "surprising" fall in unemployment as a sign that a recovery is showing strength. But the official metric for unemployment, U-3, counts only people actively looking for jobs, and that is the figure which has declined to 7.7%. Neil Irwin in the Washington Post explains:

The jobless rate dropped in large part because the labor force fell by 350,000, suggesting that people gave up looking for work. The number of people saying they had a job actually fell by 122,000. And the Labor Department revised downward its estimates of job creation in September and October by a combined 49,000. So as 122k more people became unemployed, we celebrate a decline in unemployment. Welcome to the fantasy world of government statistics.

It is even worse. Guess who's been hiring? Terrey Jeffrey knows:

The unemployment rate for government workers plunged from 4.2 percent in October to 3.8 percent in November, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as government added 35,000 to its taxpayer-funded payrolls during the month.

[mtrott]

What a deal for Obama! Obama and the dems destroy all initiative and ambition in society, drive unemployment rate down! What a great country!/s

[Dixie Yooper]

So, if we did away with unemployment benefits and any bureaucracy that supports it, the unemployment statistics as they are presently kept would be reduced to zero... Brilliant!

[OneWingedShark]

Obama and the dems destroy all initiative and ambition in society, drive unemployment rate down! What a great country!/s

Oh come on now, you're being unfair... the Republicans have helped, too.