Reply #29: Look at the DOL release. The numbers are based on so-called "Household Survey Data" [View All]

[struggle4progress]

In my view, the "Household Survey Data" is a scam, particularly in light of how it is used.

In computing unemployment, they first disregard a third of the labor force as "non-participating."

This is politically motivated statistical reporting, and if it weren't done the Administration would be telling us we have Depression-era levels of unemployment.

There appears to be an underlying structural factor: although the size of labor force grew by over 300K in June, fewer than 200K of the new entrants got jobs, while the other third will temporarily show up in the unemployed column until they too get dropped as "non-participating."

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.toc.htm
http://www.bls.gov/cps/

And it's misleading to speak of "the" economy as if it were a single entity: different social sectors can very different experiences.

The CEO of a company who encourages his managers to limit workers to 35 hrs/wk, in order to avoid paying benefits, will have a very different view of the situation than the affected workers will: as many such workers end up working multiple part-time jobs, trying to make ends meet, I do not expect them to cheer about how well the economy is doing based on the CEO's bottom line.