Friday, March 07, 2008

MSM Confuses Me

Talking about how businesses had to cut thousands of jobs = heading towards a recession. But when you read a paragraph or so down you discover the unemployment rate dropped to 4.8percent. Doesn't that mean more people have jobs than before. I am confused.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

No, because the unemployment figure only counts people who are actively looking for a job, not those who have given up (to be a stay-at-home parent, live off wellfare, move back in with their parents, etc). Employment rate + Unemployment rate does not equal 100%... just one of those confusing technical facts that make statistics so misleading. In fact, unemployment statistics often go down when the job market is difficult, because fewer people bother trying to find a job.

Also, it's over a hundred thousand jobs lost btw. Kinda significant, especially if you consider it in terms of supply and deman on the labor market (reduced demand should mean that even people who have jobs get crappier/lower paying jobs, by basic economic logic).