The Employment Situation is Worse Than You Think, But Improving (Finally)
BY: Chris Engle
One morning last December, we were greeted by some surprisingly positive news: the U.S. unemployment rate fell from 9.1 percent to 8.6 percent in just one month—a sizeable decline that suggests we can be more optimistic about 2012. But various news media and bloggers were quick to point out (correctly) that more people actually left the labor force (stopped looking for work) than people who found jobs. My first reaction to these media articles about discouraged workers was to wonder if these negative caveats were just “doom and gloom” media spin – that maybe there was a silver lining in the numbers. Is the “discouraged worker” story as bad as it sounds? more....