Bad News: 411,000 of those are temporary positions with the U.S. Census. More from Calculated Risk… and an update from Geoff at Innocent Bystander.
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3 thoughts on “Good News: 431,000 New Jobs!”
I’ve often felt that the unemployment rate was a hokey statistic. Most people, including me, don’t know how it’s computed and it’s obviously not the “simple” way: ask everyone, “Do you have a job?”
We’ve a portion of our population beyond our usual standing military engaged in military activity overseas. Directly they’re probably a drop in the bucket of unemployment statistics however they’re counted or not. But indirectly they are a number of able-bodied men and women with at least technical or leadership skills who are not working here at home. (Of course, they too are government employees.)
Greg – both Calculated Risk and Innocent Bystander tend to do a good job explaining the unemployment rate and how it is calculated. I’ve been trying to master the subtleties myself, but I can’t claim to be an expert, yet.