Saturday, December 10, 2011

Don't forget about the denominator

Perhaps encouraged by the recent drop in unemployment from 9 to 8.6, President O opined that the rate could drop to 8% by November 2012.

Given that most of the recent drop is attributable to people leaving the labor force, I guess Obama is looking for 600,000 more discouraged workers to take a hike before next November?



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

From the article you linked...

In a "60 Minutes" interview to air Sunday night, the president was asked specifically whether he would get the rate back down to 8 percent before next fall's general election.

"I think it's possible," Obama said, according to excerpts of the interview provided by CBS. "But ... I'm not in the job of prognosticating on the economy. I'm in the job of putting in place the tools that allow the economy to thrive and Americans to succeed."

I think Obama was declining to answer a question about an arbitrary unemployment rate target chosen by the questioner.