January unemployment rate drops to 9.7 percent

Yahoo finance ^ | Friday February 5, 2010, 8:34 am | AP/Yahoo

[central_va]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The unemployment rate dropped unexpectedly in January to 9.7 percent from 10 percent while employers shed 20,000 jobs.

The Labor Department says the rate dropped because a survey of households found the number of employed Americans rose by 541,000. The job losses are calculated from a separate survey of employers.

The report also included an annual revision to the estimates of total payrolls, which showed there were 930,000 fewer jobs last March than previously estimated. The department also revised down its estimates for April through October of last year, adding another 433,000 job losses.

November was revised up, however, to show a gain of 64,000 jobs.

All told, the department says the Great Recession has eliminated 8.4 million jobs. That's the most of any recession since World War II as a proportion of total payrolls.

[DoctorBulldog]

Erratum: “point the punk” should be “pointed the punk”

Cheers

[Concho]

I am waiting on the announcement to see who they hired.

[Tzimisce]

See - the Recession is over. Now you dump your racist extreme right wing talking points. :)

/sarc

[Girlene]

Almost another million jobs lost and added from 2009 and we are down to 9.7%?

They are cooking the books right now. It went from 7.2 million jobs lost to 8.2 - 8.4 million jobs lost, and voila! The unemployment rate goes down???!!!!! No way.

[Biggirl]

Pure BS.

[Tallguy]

The ones who “shrugged” aren’t reporting being unemployed.

Yep. Closed my business last June because I was bleeding red ink. Paid off all my creditors. Owe nobody. But of course I'm still a sucker because I'm not eligible for unemployment because I was the owner.

Took 6 months, but I was employed by December. Things were "getting interesting" on the personal finances front.

[egannacht]

Up is down down is up

[gibtx2]

government numbers ? smile..

[stephenjohnbanker]

..........and HELL just froze over ;-)

[screaminsunshine]

Right and a Cow just jumped over the Moon!

[uncommonsense]

From Dec 2009 to Jan 2010, not seasonally adjusted, we lost 1.4 million jobs. Total unemployment went from (in thousands) 14,740 to 16,148.

[Soothesayer9]

You can tell a teenager is lying when their explanations make no sense.

That is why you plead the 5th.

(course, it takes balls of steel to hold out..)

[algernonpj]

... do you believe what they say? Can they be trusted?

John Williams is a consulting economist who also sells a newsletter. Out of necessity he became a specialist in government economic reporting. It started when a client of his who used the GDP for sales prediction found their calculations no longer worked.

He publishes primers (open content) on how the algorithms that produce government statistics have been manipulated over time.

He also publishes (open content) alternate charts representing government statistics with the various manipulations removed. These alternate charts allow you to compare 'apples to apples' so to speak.

IMHO, from my experience as an independent IT consultant, and from the experiences of friends and acquaintances in IT and other fields, Shadowstats data much more closely reflect what we see going on as regards jobs, inflation, etc.

You can find government notices regarding info in Williams primers 'hidden in plain sight', and will find him quoted by respected writers on the economy.

[Ronbo1948]

When does THE GREAT RECESSION become THE SECOND GREAT DEPRESSION? The day a Republican is elected president.

[Soothesayer9]

Few months ago I attended a job fair for a grocery chain near NY (more or less out of curiosity since I was working at the time). 2000 resumes were received for about 150 positions...not counting resumes received online. I heard that a few of the men cried during the interviews.

Hard times.

[DoctorBulldog]

"I am waiting on the announcement to see who they hired."

Yup, that's the kicker, right there. 33,000 Federal jobs were added to the job market. About 9,000 of those are temporary Census workers.

Cheers

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

From Dec 2009 to Jan 2010, not seasonally adjusted, we lost 1.4 million jobs. Total unemployment went from (in thousands) 14,740 to 16,148.

LINK: According to the govt. (not seasonally adjusted) it went from 17.1M to 18.0M

[Concho]

Yes, but that executive order that Clinton cut on the way out the door prevents you and me from getting one of those fed jobs....Only current fed employees or fresh military are eligible for those jobs, and if there are no qualifiers there, then college grads. No experienced people need apply. Been there, done that. If you are ex military and you go to private work then try to come back, no dice.

Check it out.

[CPT Clay]

Where is the misery index?
Need the inflation.