[shelterguy]

The jobs report is a joke. Most of the jobs “added” are part time minimum wage. I believe we need 200,000 full time jobs per month just to keep up with population growth.

The unemployment rate is a farce. It has nothing to do with how any are unemployed. It only says what percentage are collecting unemployment checks.

[expat_panama]

The top 'o the Friday morning to all!   Stocks @ yesterday's close: mixed after 'positive reversal' (explanation here at IBD).  Translation: Nasdaq jumped up (distribution day count down now to 'just' 7) in lower volume but the S&P sagged.   My take, we're at the top of the recent trading range and this is when they like to sell.  We may also be at the top of the metals range too and those prices are flattening.  Futures for stock off -0.06% and for metals off -0.16%.

Here're all the econ #'s today:

8:30 AM Nonfarm Payrolls
8:30 AM Nonfarm Private Payrolls
8:30 AM Unemployment Rate
8:30 AM Hourly Earnings
8:30 AM Average Workweek
8:30 AM Trade Balance
10:00 AM Factory Orders

--and we got lots of FR econ threads again:

• Economics and finance The manufacturing jobs delusion
• Can Trump Fulfill The Tax-Reform Promise?
• Another ObamaCare Promise Bites The Dust
• Opinion: Donald Trump is at the center of any stock market prediction for 2017
• Inside How Trump Won the White Working Class
• Here’s Why Stanley Black & Decker Is Building a New U.S. Plant.(Bringing Craftsman tools back)
• Tough challenge for Trump: Getting more men back to work

[Freee-dame]

The unemployment rate is a farce. It has nothing to do with how any are unemployed. It only says what percentage are collecting unemployment checks.

I have always suspected that this is what the unemployment rate really meant but have never been able to find it written explicitly in a government document. It would be so much more honest to call that number "the percent collecting unemployment insurance payments" or an acronym meaning that. Of course the government prefers to say that people who have run through all of their unemployment benefits are no longer looking for work. This may be true if they have gotten on disability payments or found another person to support them or retired, but not if they still have to support themselves.

[Monty22002]

” It only says what percentage are collecting unemployment checks.”

WRONG.

It’s a simple phone survey. Are you employed. If not, are you looking for a job. If don’t have a job but are looking you count.

It has nothing to do with unemployment collections. Never, EVER.