In semi-shocking news that broke yesterday, the unemployment rate fell to a five-month low of 9.7%. This may suggest that some labor market improvement starting to take root. However before everyone gets too excited consider that President Obama noted yesterday that, “These numbers, while positive, are a cause for hope, but not celebration… far too many of our neighbors and friends and family are still out of work.”
Obama also warned that the jobs statistics “Will fluctuate for months to come.” Of course others aren’t so thrilled with the numbers either or they’re showing extreme caution over getting too excited early on. For example, economist Cary Leahey notes, “The excitement is the unexpected drop in the unemployment rate. Both hiring and the number of people looking for work rose. That increases the sense that the unemployment rate peaked a couple of months ago. You won’t see much improvement in the unemployment rate for the rest of the year because more people will start looking for jobs, but it appears the unemployment rate is on, at worst, a flat path…. I would not characterize this report as in any way strong. On a scale of one to 10, it’s still a three or four.”
In any case, it seems that good news is still not great news, but it’s nice to see some better numbers at least. I agree with Obama, it’s a good reason for hope but we’ll all just hold off on the celebrating for a while. In fact it’s likely still a good time to learn how to pink slip proof your job.
thanks. I like obama