Friday, August 5, 2011

Is the job report really good news?

Reuters is reporting that "U.S. job growth accelerated more than expected in July as private employers stepped up hiring, easing fears the economy was sliding into a fresh recession."   But, should we get excited about what appears to be positive job news?  Not really, according to Jeff Cox of CNBC.  He writes the following in his article Beneath Jobs Report Surface Lies Some Ugly Truths:  

...the drop in the unemployment rate is fairly illusory—stick all those people [discouraged workers] back in the workforce and you wipe out the job creation and the drop in unemployment.
And the so-called “real” unemployment rate, which adds in discouraged workers and others not counted as part of the headline unemployment rate, actually pulled back one notch to 16.1 percent.

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