Polk's policies are working!

FlashHarry: in before the fark independents™ remind us that this is bad because it indicates "discouraged" workers leaving the job force.

so just to recap:

• unemployment rate climbs = bad
• unemployment rate drops = bad

Try again. It means the "unemployment rate" is a lousy metric.

Yea right

120,000 new jobs created. 300,000 stopped actively looking for employment.

FiendishFellow05: FlashHarry: in before the fark independents™ remind us that this is bad because it indicates "discouraged" workers leaving the job force.

so just to recap:

• unemployment rate climbs = bad
• unemployment rate drops = bad

Try again. It means the "unemployment rate" is a lousy metric.

So how is one to judge the unemployment situation in the country?

What's the metric that should be used?

FlashHarry: in before the fark independents™ remind us that this is bad because it indicates "discouraged" workers leaving the job force.

so just to recap:

• unemployment rate climbs = bad
• unemployment rate drops = bad

Not exactly, its more like

unemployment rate climbs = bad
unemployment rate drops = good, but it isnt going to save our country, pull us out of the recession, fix the economy, restore civil liberties, make all politicians honest, hardworking people and kill sarah palin. for us.

The point of harping on this "it indicates people have stopped looking for work, not that more people have jobs" is that the unemployment numbers are not the whole picture, and shouldnt be read in a vacuum.

FiendishFellow05: Try again. It means the "unemployment rate" is a lousy metric.

The hell you say! That birth/death model is flawless! FLAWLESS I SAY!

Wouldn't the spread between the various metrics give a better indication of what exactly happened?

FiendishFellow05:
Try again. It means the "unemployment rate" is a lousy metric.

It may not show the whole picture, but if it's used consistently, then as a trend metric, it works just fine. If you can use it to show bad news, then you can use it to show (relatively) good news.

I just wonder what a Flash animation of a Chelsea Clinton look-alike shaking her ass and pointing her finger thinks of this news.

Philip J. Fry: 120,000 new jobs created. 300,000 stopped actively looking for employment.

Yea, but the unemployment rate dropped! Why do you hate America?

Unemployment will go up next month now that OWS protests are being removed by force and Jesus.

In this thread, conservatives who believe that the government cannot create anything, demand that the government create jobs.

B-b-b-but I don't even know anymore.

Half a percent of the unemployed are now seasonally employed to help sell Chinese crap for Christmas.

Joy to the World.

physt: Obama Pic

Damn, he looks 20 years younger in that picture.

I've been seeing this since the summer. My company is hiring, many of my clients are hiring. In fact, we're all having trouble finding people. Yesterday on my lunch break I went to the supermarket, a bookstore, Marshall's (clothes store) and a Subway Restaurant. All four had help wanted signs up.

Anecdote =/= data, but that's what I'm seeing. YMMV based on where you live.

Yeah, but what's the real unemployment rate? All those people out of work and not drawing unemployment drop off the government radar. It is probably still up around 15%.

Not bad given we're still bleeding jobs in the government sector because for some inexplicable reason people are focused on austerity at a time when money is cheap, people desperately need jobs and our country's infrastructure is a crumbling.

Aphoticamy: Bullshiat.

MilesTeg: Yea right

Were you guys hoping for a higher unemployment rate number today?

Seasonal hiring . . . let's regroup and look at the numbers after the holiday season.

Submitted from Fox News for the one-two punch effect. Masterful work, subby

Good to see Bush's economic policies finally kicking in and countering the Clinton Recession.

numbone: Half a percent of the unemployed are now seasonally employed to help sell Chinese crap for Christmas.

Joy to the World.

The unemployment rate is seasonally adjusted. Useless talkingpoint is useless.

I have a Master's Degree in Computer Science with a specialty in financial computation and permutation. I have been unemployed for the last three years, unable to find even menial labor because I have lower back issues. I have no idea what exactly is inflating these numbers, but I can tell you empirically that they are fantasies. Perhaps the psychological depression that is driving consumer holiday spending is creating more retail jobs, but there are no real jobs for people with brains out there. I don't see how they can even count some airhead blonde folding shirts as an actual job. Or the remedial office drone working in an insurance office. They shouldn't count tasks as jobs, as they are painting a false picture hoping solely to get Obama reelected.

aren't there a whole bunch of seasonal jobs open from november to december?

-shopping mall santas
-extra clerks at retail outlets
-extra security guards for retail outlets
-christmas tree farm workers
-christmas tree sellers


if so, then the numbers are not reliable. i would want to see stats on all of the living wage full time positions available in the u.s.

Interesting that FoxNews never bothers to mention that government payrolls shrunk again. I think that's at least half a year of continous reduction in government employment. Obama has presided over the largest real, documented, reduction in the size of the government (excluding military) in my memory. (Yeah, much of it is at the state and local level, but the fact is government is shrinking.)

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm

ManateeGag: Impasse: Polk's policies are working!

FEH! Those are William Henry Harrison's policies, and you know it!

BULLSHIAT! This goes all the way back to King George himself!
/GOD SAVE THE KING!!!

Fixing the economy is a short term problem that should be done within the next 3-4 months.

As a sidenote, believe it or not there are people smart enough to figure out that seasonal employment matters too. And seasonally adjusted, or compared to the exact same month last year (and if I recall correctly, we had Christmas shopping last year too), the numbers are up.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm

Jerkwater: I've been seeing this since the summer. My company is hiring, many of my clients are hiring. In fact, we're all having trouble finding people. Yesterday on my lunch break I went to the supermarket, a bookstore, Marshall's (clothes store) and a Subway Restaurant. All four had help wanted signs up.

my former employer (online selling place you may have heard of) cannot post enough jobs for programmers and IT folks. They just bought over half of the building they are in on the East coast because they're out of room on the West Coast. also, they purchased another building across from the secondary site for their East Coast operations.

So yeah... when I see "i can't get der jooob" kinda stuff, I load their Help Wanted page and go "jesus... 15 more openings?"

/still wouldn't go back though
//enjoy social life and non 24/7 phone tethering

RexTalionis:
That wasn't the intention. It just happened that I was reading Fox News that the breaking news bar came up.

/subby

You're gonna damage your brain doing that.

This needs the tag.

/Probably including seasonal retail jobs
//Not including long-term unemployed

The U6 rate, which paints a much more complete picture of the employment situation, dropped from 16.2% in October to 15.6% in November. That would equal the biggest decline since early 2009.

Sad day for those who want the economy to go belly up in order to get rid of TEH COMMUNIST MUSLIM FROM KENYA THAT IS ILLEGALLY OCCUPYING THE WHITE HOUSE WITH HIS UPPITY WIFE. Or something. For the rest of us, its some good news.