I just saw the Presidents economic adviser spin the new unemployment rise into "We are heading in the right direction" I guess my engineering degree math was wrong. I should have gotten a degree in political science, so I could understand this administrations economics. Where did I go wrong?
Anonymous
Favorite Answer
You forgot to carry the 1
joel d
When there are no jobs to be found people quit looking for work. Those people who are no longer looking for work don't get counted as unemployed (silly I know but that's the way it is). that's why you hear people talking about the real unemployment rate vs. the reported unemployment rate. As jobs creation accelerates and people become hopeful about finding a job they start looking again which usually will cause the reported unemployment rate to spike. If job creation continues to grow and outpaces the number of unemployed coming back into the job market, then we could be seeing a positive trend, but that could take several months.
AnonymousGearhead
What they fail to mention is the REAL unemployment rate. 9% is how many people are filing for unemployment benefits. The actual number of people who are not working is double, if not triple that (last stat I had read put it around 25%). Don't be fooled...Jobs aren't being created faster than than they are being hemorrhaged.
?
I would think a person with an engineering degree would understand a bit more about how the unemployment rate is measured, If you understood this, you would also understand that a small increase in the unemployment rate does not necessarily indicate a worsening of the unemployment situation.
Anonymous
College grads will push that number up a few more points in a month.
The closer we get to the election, the more people will realize we enjoyed 16 years of unemployment under 6%, and Obama has no idea how to get us back on track.