The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Good News! Work Force Still Shrinking

Posted on | December 7, 2012 | 9 Comments

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air describes the November jobs report:

The economy added 146,000 jobs, better than expected if still a status quo result, and the jobless rate declined to 7.7%. . . .
However, the seasonally-adjusted labor force dropped by 350,000, and the civilian labor force participation rate also dropped two-tenths of a point to 63.6%, almost at the 31-year low hit in August. . . .
In other words, America isn’t going back to work. Americans are still dropping out of the work force.

This statistical illusion — having the unemployment rate decline because the people stop looking for work — cannot be maintained infinitely. Economic reality is like gravity, and is impossible to avoid.

UPDATE: Bill McBride at Calculated Risk has a bunch of charts and stuff, in case you require detailed data to know the economy sucks.

 


Category: Economics

Comments

9 Responses to “Good News! Work Force Still Shrinking”

  1. Frank B
    December 7th, 2012 @ 9:46 am

    Your rich uncle will find a way to describe these most downtrodden of the downtrodden as “retired”…at least that’s my cynical suspicion.

  2. JeffS
    December 7th, 2012 @ 9:52 am

    Somewhere, Barack Obama is smiling.

  3. Jackie Wellfonder - Raging Against the Rhetoric – Our Ever Shrinking Workforce
    December 7th, 2012 @ 11:35 am

    […] and delude yourself by thinking that is good news. Please, do the research and know the facts. As Stacy McCain said, ‘Good News! The workforce is still […]

  4. Darrel
    December 7th, 2012 @ 5:19 pm

    Everyone seems to use the same language to describe those who “dropped out of the workforce”. And that is the say they have “stopped looking for work” I general neither of those two quotes are accurate. These are people who have exhausted their unemployment benefits, and have stopped communicating with the federal government. Hundreds of thousands don’t “give up” every week, they just stopped getting the checks.
    They are mostly still looking, or working under the table. It’s just that the State and media can pretend that these vast multitudes do not exist.

  5. Justin
    December 7th, 2012 @ 6:03 pm

    What percentage of the 146000 new jobs ar government jobs, which take more money out of the economy?

  6. Adobe_Walls
    December 7th, 2012 @ 8:42 pm

    35000 in Nov according to Breitbart, 73% of created jobs over the last five months.
    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/12/07/73-percent-new-jobs-government-jobs

  7. Justin
    December 7th, 2012 @ 10:00 pm

    Thanks, AW!

  8. SDN
    December 8th, 2012 @ 10:27 am

    That’s one of the assumptions. Or if you go on some form of disability you are assumed not to be looking either.

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