The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released the jobless numbers for Febuary 2011. This is a regular monthly exercise in statistical flim-flam, and the BLS knows it.
The meaningless unemployment rate in the headlines: 8.9%. The real unemployment rate: 15.9% (includes people who no longer get unemployment benefits, need work but have stopped looking because it’s futile, or have only found part-time work). Learn more here.
Mike Konczal explains the bottom line: “Unemployment Is Dropping as Workers Keep Dropping Out.”
Short link: http://bit.ly/f7thzb
Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Tags: BLS, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor, DoL, economy, employment, jobless rate, joblessness, jobs, unemployment, unemployment rate
NotionsCapital 
March 7, 2011 at 8:42 am
Updates:
“In the private sector, there is a striking imbalance between where the recession’s job losses occurred, and where the growth of the past 12 months was concentrated:
Lower-wage industries constituted 23 percent of job loss, but fully 49 percent of recent growth
Mid-wage industries constituted 36 percent of job loss, and 37 percent of recent growth
Higher-wage industries constituted 40 percent of job loss, but only 14 percent of recent growth”
—National Employment Law Project
and
“The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports 192,000 new jobs in Februrary (220,000 new jobs in the private sector and a drop in government employment), and a drop in the overall unemployment rate from 9 to 8.9 percent.”
“Overall, the number of unemployed Americans – 13.7 million – is about the same as it was last month. The number working part time who’d rather be working full time – 8.3 million – is also about the same.”
“While the biggest losses were higher-wage jobs paying an average of $19.05 to $31.40 an hour, the biggest gains have been lower-wage jobs paying an average of $9.03 to $12.91 an hour.”
— Robert Reich