Happy Days are Here again! Unemployment down to 9.4%

7Jan/110

Happy Days are Here again! Unemployment down to 9.4%

According to the figures released by BLS this morning, as reported by the AP. But curiously, the non-farm payroll job increases fell far short of the conventional wisdom estimates by economists; especially following in the wake of yesterday's barn-burner metric released by ADP claiming that employers added 297,000 jobs in December, coming in at 103,000 on expectations of 160,000 while private payrolls increased by 113,000 on expectations of 178,000. Is it time to start repeating the phrase, mantra-like, "Obama's failed economic policies". yet?

So if less jobs were created than expected, why did unemployment go down? Because the level of workforce particpation has dropped to a 25 year low. Once unemployed people give up looking for work, the government stops counting them as part of the U-3 unemployment number. In fact, the U-6 underemployment number, which more accurately measures total unemployment, is edging closer to it high in July 2010, currently stranding at 16.6% up 0.3% from November. And some folks believe that number may be understated as well, since a great many self-employed folks who are effectively unemployed are not necessarily included in that figure. I wonder where all the agitators decrying the "jobless recovery" have gone?

While some unemployed finally getting jobs is always good news, the average worker is still getting less than 40 hours a week, and these figures are subject to later revision, as always. So we won't really know the actual numbers until February 4th, when the January report comes in. If you have a job, or are self employed, count your blessings, and in any case, pray for those who need work but are unable to find any.