The U.S. unemployment rate fell sharply in September to its lowest level since January 2009, suggesting that summer job growth was stronger than previously thought and providing new fodder for a presidential race that has focused on competing views of the nation’s economic health.
Data released Friday portrayed a labor market that has perked up a bit since the spring but is still growing modestly. The unemployment rate slid to 7.8%, the Labor Department said, falling below 8% for the first time since President Barack Obama’s inauguration. The rate has fallen half a percentage point since July, when it was 8.3%.
Read it all. Mish did an excellent job in his analysis. Blog readers know I prefer U-6, which I consider the most representative rate–it stayed the same month over month–KSH
Hmm. Breitbart thinks the numbers have been cooked by the addition of public sector jobs. http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/10/05/Suspicion-Falls-on-Labor-Secretary-Solis-as-Jobs-Numbers-Questioned
A statistic that I did not even see reported on in the media was Friday’s Monster Employment Index. It showed a drop in the monthly index from 156 to 153. While the overall trend has been in a slight uptrend since bottoming out in January, 2010, the rejoicing over the supposed “great” unemployment numbers seems rather misplaced given other data points.
The huge boost in part-time employment that drove down the unemployment rate seems like at least a 5 or 6 sigma event. If it wouldn’t be taken as a racist comment, I think I would start referring to POTUS as “Black Swan.”
My daughter just used up all her unemployment. Does that mean she’s not officially “unemployed” anymore?