Unemployment falls in 37 states in May

[nmbluesky]

WASHINGTON - A majority of states saw their unemployment rates drop in May. But the widespread declines were mainly because people gave up work searches and were no longer counted.

The Labor Department says the unemployment rate fell in 37 states. Six states had increases and seven saw no change.

Forty-one states saw a net increase in jobs. But that reflected national data showing a huge gain because of government hiring of temporary census workers.
Nevada rose to the highest jobless rate in the country, marking the first time in more than four years that Michigan did not hold the top spot. Nevada's rate was 14 percent. Michigan fell to 13.6 percent.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37779938/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/

[kestrel91316]

1. Here in SoCal I have had an excellent first half of June for my business,

and am hoping that the second half will also be a big improvement over recent months.

Prediction: economic indicators for June will show a noticeable jump.

[daa]

2. Census hiring (temp) anyone??? eom

[Beacool]

3. You should have added the subtitle:

But most of the declines came as people gave up searching for work

;)

[quiller4]

7. That assertation is not supported by data from 33 of the states

that show the work force growing and the unemployment rate declining. If the drop was due to people giving up, then the size of the work force would drop rather than grow.

[golfguru]

8. You may be right...most of the declines came as people gave up searching

[xchrom]

4. recommend

put BP in charge -- they'll fix it.

[Hawkowl]

5. BECAUSE PEOPLE STOPPED LOOKING FOR WORK!

It doesn't mean more jobs, or less unemployment. All it means is that now, these people are officially no longer in the labor force.

So now congress can fuck them on unemployment benefits with logic like "so you've been unemployed for 18 months, so you must not really want a job. No more unemployment benefits for you!"

Seriously, why do people think the Senate just blocked extending unemployment benefits? Misusing this absolutely Orwellian, fucked up, made up statistic called the unemployment rate, Congress can just pretend people don't exist and that jobs do.

If the government wanted people to know the true extent of unemployment they would simply ADD UP THE PEOPLE PAYING FICA TAXES!

[golfguru]

9. Brilliant idea! Just count people paying social security taxes

and then divide by total adult population. That number will be way less than 75%.
Meaning 25% to +++ have no jobs.

[Greyhound]

6. We'll see more and more of these types of Bizarro-world statistics simply because they are

running out of jobs to eliminate and money to pay for the previous victims.

35 states are bankrupt today, there have been no legal filings yet but in practical terms they simply have no money. Firing teachers, firefighters, police, maintenance workers, clerks, all the people that actually do the things which make a community possible, because revenues have vanished down the parasite hole, and the blood-suckers on top will never fire themselves.

It seems that hoping for change is not as effective as actually changing, but it's certainly easier.

[branders seine]

10. Plus 431,000 temporary census jobs.

Totally artifical stat.

Actual unemployment -- the real-world phenomenon, not the government propaganda number -- is getting worse, not better.

[brentspeak]

11. As the article says, artificial stat trumped up using temporary census figures