Bureau of Labor Stats...

U

usta in Portland

Daily Driver
November report against which to view the news of a dip in unemployment. It's a mixed bag. The numbers most interesting from a pure growth point of view may be the 'participation' ratios, the hours worked, and the wage levels. The unemployment rate itself along with the underemployment rate is interesting mostly against a trend line.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf
 
Unemployment Down for how long?

Do you think its just the seasonal hiring for the Christmas Sales and most will be let go in Jan.?
 
I don't personally....

but that is just pure gut feeling with nothing to back it up. My sense is that the simple fact of population growth is starting to put some gas in the tank (we are about the only mature Western economy that has this advantage). If you look at where the hiring really was, it was mostly in consumer industries not capital goods industry. The fact that the labor participation numbers are down is not a good sign and the 'unemployment rate' per se is a pretty murky statistic IMO-still there it is. It would be nice to think the rate actually meant something but the sheer duration of this downturn makes any few months worth of data kinda suspect. Whatever the case it certainly has nothing to do with present policy-in fact seems to be improving in spite of, not because of, any such.
 
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