Jobless Rate Drops to 7.7% Lowest In Four Years

Good for the people who found work.

Downside, four years of very high unemployment and it is still at historically high levels.

BTW, if the fiscal cliff isn't averted, unemployment benefits go back to 33 weeks from the current 99 system. January could be very bleak for many American homes.

Don't forget that 350k dropped out of the workforce too... but MSNBC won't tell ya that part.

Yeah, those baby boomers who retired and stopped looking for work continue to increase. The decline has been forecast for years. But Fox News won't tell ya that part.

Obama never explained during his hundreds of speeches how a declining workforce could make the unemployment numbers look better than the reality either. He knows how ignorant his base is which worked greatly in his favor.

Only to Republicans is a declining unemployment rate bad news.

Declining unemployment isn't the bad news. The bad news is that after spending 100's of billions on stimulus the rate is still over 7.6%. And so many have been unable to find steady employment since BHO has been elected.

As has been predicted for months as baby boomers leave the work force and retire. It's going to continue and the righties will lay it all on people giving up, instead of the actual cause.

Here's an interesting piece that points out baby boomers are mostly responsible for those leaving the work force.

Barclays Debunks The Greatest 'Urban Legend' Of The Labor Market



As you can see, the decline in workforce participation was never in doubt, so if you're trying to calculate the "real" unemployment rate simply by holding the participation rate fixed from some point in time, you've already erred.

All of this is a long way of getting to the fact that Barclays economists Dean Maki, Troy Davig, and Peter Newland have a brand new paper called Dispelling An Urban Legend, which blasts the idea that labor force participation is mostly being dragged down by depressed workforce exiles. Instead it's really mostly about the demographics.

As a share of the total population, those aged 55 or older have jumped by nearly 5 percent in a decade. The big loser demographic was the 35-44 year old cohort, which is the prime working age population, and which saw its share of the population drop 4 percent.

Still, how do we know that the people who have left the workforce don't really want to get back in?

Well, the BLS asks them: DO YOU WANT A JOB? And the vast majority say: NO.

http://articles.businessinsider.com/201 ... z25nT4Sl8f

It is amazing to see the spin machine in operation. I have heard the retirement angle from three different sources, but lets take a deeper look at it.

1) People retiring earlier than 65 because they can't find work so they have to go on reduced SS benefits.
2) People retiring earlier and further stressing entitlements like Social Security and the Medicare/Medicaid.
3) And retiring voluntarily? But I am reading so many stories about the people who have jobs working past their normal retirements because of losses to savings, plus a Fed that has lowered interest rates to levels that penalize the people who have saved all their lives.

FORWARD!!!!!!!!! :faint: :faint: :faint: :faint:

FredHayek wrote: It is amazing to see the spin machine in operation.

It certainly is... You should try listening to less Limburger, FauxNews, and reading your Rightie-blogs....