The unemployment numbers released Friday show that the magic 9/7 percent rate hides more than it reveals. S Fox Business News anchor Stuart Varney noted, the reason the politically-significant number fell from toxic 10 percent to less toxic 9.7 is a dolorous one: 1.1M people stopped looking for work, and thus are no longer counted in the big-picture number. But there is more, MUCH more in the numbers underneath....
Other key job metrics: 20,000 lost jobs in January; 150,000 lost jobs in December, revised upward from 60,000; 64,000 jobs gained in November, revised upward from 4,000; losses for 2009, 4.8M, revised upward by 600,000; losses for 2008 & Dec. 2007, 3.6M, revised upward by 800,000--this makes for a total of 8.4M jobs lost since the recession began in Dec. 2007, a 1.4M upward revision; under-employment rate fell in January from 17.3 percent to 16.5 percent.
Former Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao (wife of GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell) said on Fox News Friday that the average unemployment duration is normally 8 weeks but in this recession it is 7 months.
Bottom Line. NEVER accept the single-benchmark rate as gospel for what is happening in the economy. In this case: Hold the champagne.
Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, Economy,
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