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Thursday, April 05, 2012

Sharp Drop In Jobless Rate Raises Questions For Economists

Something in Friday’s employment data won't add up.

For the past 50 years, it’s been widely assumed that the jobless rate can’t fall much unless the economy expands faster than its normal pace. Anything less only creates enough jobs to keep up with the growth of the labor force -- not absorb the millions left unemployed by the latest downturn.

But over the past six months, the U.S. unemployment rate has surprised economists by rapidly falling to 8.3 percent from 9.1 percent even as the economy has yet to get back up to pre-recession speed. According to the textbooks, that’s not supposed to happen.

The unexplained drop has touched off a debate among dismal scientists, who have gone back to their chalkboards to try to figure out what is happening.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's an election year. All of the governments numbers will be reflecting a positive outlook over the next 8 months so that the elected can get re-elected.

Anonymous said...

Justmore lies and BS. What did you expect?

Anonymous said...

just an example of trying to "wag the dog". the obama administration can claim that things area happening but the actual numbers tell the real story.