By Bill Wilson — 122,000 fewer Americans had jobs in November than in October, yet the government reports that the unemployment rate declined to 7.7 percent. This simple fact is why the unemployment rate has become one of the least relevant economic statistics that the federal government releases. Instead of being a benchmark for the nation’s employment situation, the unemployment rate has become nothing more than a statistical anomaly. Anyone who continues to take it seriously as a meaningful measure of our nation’s economy is either fooling themselves or trying to fool others.
Bill Wilson is the President of Americans for Limited Government. You can follow him on Twitter at @BillWilsonALG.
Below is the data from Schedule A of the Labor Department unemployment report:
| Category | Nov. 2011 |
Sept. 2012 |
Oct. 2012 |
Nov. 2012 |
Change from: Oct. 2012- Nov. 2012 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Employment status | |||||
| Civilian noninstitutional population | 240,441 | 243,772 | 243,983 | 244,174 | 191 |
| Civilian labor force | 153,937 | 155,063 | 155,641 | 155,291 | -350 |
| Participation rate | 64.0 | 63.6 | 63.8 | 63.6 | -0.2 |
| Employed | 140,614 | 142,974 | 143,384 | 143,262 | -122 |
| Employment-population ratio | 58.5 | 58.7 | 58.8 | 58.7 | -0.1 |
| Unemployed | 13,323 | 12,088 | 12,258 | 12,029 | -229 |
| Unemployment rate | 8.7 | 7.8 | 7.9 | 7.7 | -0.2 |
| Not in labor force | 86,503 | 88,710 | 88,341 | 88,883 | 542 |
| Unemployment rates | |||||
| Total, 16 years and over | 8.7 | 7.8 | 7.9 | 7.7 | -0.2 |
