Beyond 9.4 percent

William Jacobsen does the work the MSM won’t. He looks underneath the drop in the unemployment rate announced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics this morning from 9.8 to 9.4 percent.
“Dig just a bit deeper,” Jacobsen comments, “and you will see that 0.2% of that drop (or half the total drop) was from a decrease in the ‘participation rate’ from 64.5 to 64.3 of the population. So half of the good news reflects that people have dropped out of the work force and have given up looking for work.”
Viewing the participation rate over the past 20 years. Jacobsen adds that “we are at a 20-year low.” He has more of interest, most of which will remain a deep secret to folks who get their news from the MSM.
Via Instpundit.
UPDATE: Douglas Holtz-Eakin also looks beyond the unemployment rate.

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