[GallopingGhost]

What this data suggests to me is that the people who are working have been earning the same or slightly more since the recession and have been continuing to spend their money. This is generally backed up by both the consumer confidence numbers and the retail sales numbers for the past several quarters. This is consistent with the majority opinion that the U.S. is in a very mild (jobless) recovery. Of course keep in mind that these numbers were produced at the tail end of the Iraq confict and that they numbers are almost always revised at some point. Expect next months numbers to be slightly better.

[cherry_bomb88]

I do expect them to be better. I always hate the unemployment rate...through the years I've seen so many people with the attitude "I'll just ride out the unemployment income as long as I can"....they "fudge" reports of looking for jobs...they don't want to find work...a mom of one of my daughter's friends is like that right now...so, the numbers are skewed, there are a lot of people that look at it as an extended paid vacation and milk it for awhile.