Unemployment falls to lowest point since January 2009
The unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent in September, the Labor Department said Friday, from 8.1 percent in July, its lowest since January 2009.
President Barack Obama and members of his staff may feel like they are coming in from “out in the rain” after the new jobs numbers are positive. Official White House Photo / Pete Souza
The Washington Post claims “It is a surprising show of improvement in a job market that had seemed listless in recent months. Unlike in August, the number improved for the right reason: not because people gave up looking for jobs, but because far more people reported having one.”
Thefigures reflected that the nation added 181,000 jobs in July and 142,000 jobs in August, showing that job growth in the third quarter was far higher than in the spring.
Some economists said the decline in the jobless rate likely occurred over a longer period than the report indicates, because the way the government calculates job growth and the jobless rate can be flawed and lead to artificial jumps that are later revised.
“I take these numbers with an enormous grain of salt,” said economist Joshua Shapiro of consultancy MFR Inc. in New York. “I think the underlying trend is pretty clear in terms of the labor market—that it’s still struggling quite mightily.”
Many critics are not convinced citing the increased number of people working part-time. Note the bottom graph from Shadow Stats which continues to show a rise in the overall number.
The seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994. That estimate is added to the BLS estimate of U-6 unemployment, which includes short-term discouraged workers.
