The unemployment rate in the United States is at a historic low of 4.2%. Its recent drop though, is extremely deceiving. In common sense terms, one would think for a drop in unemployment, that the U.S. economy would have to add jobs. But in September, our economy actually lost 33,000 jobs. In fact, due to population growth, the U.S. economy needs to add around 150,000 jobs per month just to keep the number even.
So how can this happen? Well, the way that the government started calculating the unemployment rate under Barack Obama, does not account for the people that have fallen out of the labor force. There are over 61 Million people that have stopped looking for work. Those people are no longer counted in these statistics. Thus, although there was a net job loss in September, hundreds of thousands of Americans weren't counted as unemployed. And the unemployment rate doesn't count the underemployed. There are millions of Americans who aren't able to find full time work.
These facts were never reported by the Mainstream Media over the last 8 years. And they are extremely important to understand as we look at the state of the United States economy. Hopefully the Republicans and Democrats can for once get their crap together and get tax cuts done for the middle class. But I won't be holding my breath. Cheers!