RightChange: Unemployment Rate Drops To 8.3% For January 2012

President Obama says we are moving in the right direction.  He consistently cites the unemployment rate to prove his claim.  There is always more than meets than eye regarding the jobless rate and the latest numbers are no different.  The unemployment rate fell by .2% to 8.3% in January 2012 from the 243,000 new jobs that were added to the U.S. economy.

“Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 243,000 in January, and the unemployment rate decreased to 8.3 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job growth was widespread in the private sector, with large employment gains in professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and manufacturing. Government employment changed little over the month.”

As Reuters points out, these latest numbers certainly are not bad news, but we should be “cautiously optimistic:”

“The unemployment rate has now declined for five straight months, although part of the drop reflects discouraged Americans giving up the hunt for work.

A broad measure of unemployment, which includes people who want to work but have stopped looking and those working only part time but who want more work, slipped to a near three-year low of 15.1 percent in January from 15.2 percent in December.

Revisions to the payrolls figures showed 180,000 more jobs were created last year than previously believed.

Mild winter weather boosted employment last month in construction, which added 21,000 jobs after a 31,000 increase in December. Manufacturing payrolls surged 50,000, the largest gain in a year, after rising 32,000 the prior month.

Overall, the goods-producing sector added 81,000 jobs last month, the most since January 2006.

Transportation and warehousing employment increased 13,100 and courier jobs only fell 1,500. Last month, the Labor Department reported a large increase in courier jobs in December, but revisions showed they actually declined.

Retail employment rose 10,500 after gaining 6,200 in December. Temporary help services jumped 20,100 after rising 8,300, a potentially good sign for future permanent hiring.”

The real unemployment numbers, which count those who have given up work all together, is down .1%.   The labor force participation rate has not gotten any better either.  When Obama took office, the percentage of Americans with jobs started at 65.7%.  That number has steadily declined to 63.7%.  This means that every month Obama has been in office, more people continue to drop out of the labor force -hardly a move in the right direction.

Take these numbers and be cautiously optimistic if you want to, but our economy is not growing.  President Obama is turning his focus away from growing the economy and towards redistributing it.

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