
Jobless Rate in U.S. Falls Below 6% as Hiring Picks Up - denzil_correa
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/04/business/economy/monthly-jobs-report-september.html
======
epicureanideal
But the workforce participation rate also fell.

"Notably, part of the decline in the unemployment rate was because workers
left the labor force. The share of the population with jobs or hunting for one
fell to 62.7 percent, its lowest level since 1978."

[http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/unemployment-rate-
dr...](http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/unemployment-rate-drops-6-year-
low-5-9-percent-n217491)

Another article I read earlier today also said that the average wage fell by 1
cent.

~~~
nazgulnarsil
I don't buy it. For myself and other employers I know, we're just having an
incredibly difficult time hiring low skilled employees. $15 an hour for menial
work? Maybe 4-5 responses from craigslist. Contrast this with a couple years
ago when there would have been dozens of applicants. Labor seems tight.

~~~
guessbest
Hey, I'm an iOS developer desperately seeking work. I am also a vet, and I've
had no luck finding work. Where can I go to get this work? I'll even do menial
work.

~~~
ojbyrne
Location?

~~~
guessbest
Austin, TX

[http://randydillon.net](http://randydillon.net)

~~~
ojbyrne
I know someone looking for an iOS dev, I'll pass that along. Can't really
promise anything but maybe something will come from it.

~~~
guessbest
Thanks. My email is randydillonnet AT gmail DOT com and my github is
[https://github.com/NSausage](https://github.com/NSausage)

------
joshuahedlund
For those interested in details about participation rates, demographics, etc,
you can start diving in with Calculated Risk's info and analysis here:

[http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2014/10/september-
employme...](http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2014/10/september-employment-
report-248000-jobs.html)

[http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2014/10/comments-on-
employ...](http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2014/10/comments-on-employment-
report-party.html)

~~~
cjlars
To the people dissatisfied with the headline unemployment rate, we can also
look at the U5 unemployment rate, which includes discouraged workers. It tells
roughly the same story as the headline rate, U6 which includes part-for-
economic-reasons workers seems to be falling a bit faster than the headline
rate:

[http://www.macrotrends.net/1377/u6-unemployment-
rate](http://www.macrotrends.net/1377/u6-unemployment-rate)

------
001sky
The mandate of the fed should be changed to correct for the data problems
evident here.

The "easiest" way to increase (inverse) metrics is always to move people from
the measured bucket (unemployed) to the not-measured one (non-participating).

If we shift inflation from assets < 1 year life to those of longer duration,
we can manipulate that metric pretty well too.

Until composite metrics are better disseminated and understood, these things
will remain underlying problems.

~~~
raldi
Reposting dead reply from BobCat:

 _> The statistic that should be used is full time job equivalents over the
preceding year - any other statistic can be misused, but actual hours worked
is pretty reliably determined and increases and decreases have real meaning._

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adventured
Others here have touched on some of the issues with the headline number, such
as quality of jobs created, full-time employment rate, the real unemployment
number (counting discouraged), and the labor force participation rate.

Another aspect to the current situation that really bothers me, is that we're
only starting to claw down the real unemployment rate after five years,
approximately just in time for the next recession to hit. GDP growth has
basically been falling for three years now. Getting slammed with another
recession, with 11% real unemployment, is going to hurt a lot.

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pkaye
I've been tracking the U6 unemployment rate which is much more pessimistic and
it is also tracking down steadily.
[http://portalseven.com/employment/unemployment_rate_u6.jsp](http://portalseven.com/employment/unemployment_rate_u6.jsp)

~~~
MacsHeadroom
U6 is quite optimistic, actually.
[http://i.imgur.com/x1duiaG.gif](http://i.imgur.com/x1duiaG.gif)

~~~
ojbyrne
shadowstats is junk science.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8235378](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8235378)

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ams6110
Predictable "good news" on unemployment with elections looming.

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jefthegreat
Thanks for all the free money!

~~~
jefthegreat
cant wait for the inflation to pick up -.-

