Unemployment Rate Drops to 8.6 Percent

Reader Comments
Back to article

It is good to be upbeat. Expect good things to happen. It can seem disingenuous, though, to pretend better things have happened than facts indicate. If the upward revisions totaling 72,000 in previous months "are one major reason why the unemployment rate fell so steeply" then to suggest the 315,000 people who gave up looking for work was "a modest drop in labor force participation" that "may also have...affected" the declining rate looks like slanted advocacy of something. But what? An upbeat attitude is not served by misidentifying causes.

Gregory Trachta of TX 5:31PM December 05, 2011

The current National Unemployment Rate is so surreal that it only serves as a reminder of how manipulative and corrupt our government has become. Although there are some who adamantly believe this 8.6% number, most of us see this as an extension of more political hogwash.
I've just compiled a detailed composition to House Speaker, John Boehner, requesting to renovate and/or disband the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in it's entirety as it is merely another wasteful government money pit, a begiled "Reader's Digest" aimed at serving no other purpose than to promote political distortion.
Angry at our government are you? ....you may want to write likewise!

John Wayne of NM 1:57AM December 05, 2011

What recovery? Just because you and other fourth estate media cry "its' a recovery", doesn't mean it is. The economy actually lost about 315,000 people who no longer are looking for work, and most of those "new jobs" aer in retail and service industries that will be cutting in January. The real U6 unemployment rate is 15.3%, and the economy would have to add 250,000 permanent, well-paying jobs to just break even.
Quit peddling kool aid.

Larue of MT 9:11PM December 04, 2011