US Economic Report: Wheat Among the Weeds?

       As we just saw in my previous post today's numbers were ugly-can barely stand to look at them.

       Hope you all have a Happy Friday-alas US economy had a bad one

      http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2012/06/us-economy-is-little-engine-that-must.html

       Was there anything in the report to hang your hat on at all, any green shoots? It turns out there was in the most unlikely of places at that.

        On controversial point about the way the US gives unemployment figures is that the gauge ignores those who have given up on finding work-measured as being out of the work place for a certain amount of time. It also includes those "underemployed" meaning they are working but only part time.

        "The U.S. unemployment rate ticked up to 8.2% in May and a broader measure rose even more to 14.8%. But the increases belied a slightly positive trend."

          http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2012/06/01/broader-jobless-rate-jumps-to-14-8/?mod=WSJBlog&mod=WSJ_EC_RT_Blog

          "The increase in the jobless rate primarily came from people returning to the labor force. "The unemployment rate is calculated based on people who are without jobs, who are available to work and who have actively sought work in the prior four weeks. The “actively looking for work” definition is fairly broad, including people who contacted an employer, employment agency, job center or friends; sent out resumes or filled out applications; or answered or placed ads, among other things. The rate is calculated by dividing that number by the total number of people in the labor force. When the unemployed return to the labor force, both numbers increase and the unemployment rate climbs."

          "In May, the number of unemployed dropped rose by 220,000, but so did the number of people employed — by an even bigger 422,000. But the overall labor force jumped by 642,000, indicating that some of the jobless who dropped out are searching for work again."

          So ironically, whereas last month when the unemployment rate ticked down to 8.1% and this was brushed aside by those who pointed out that some of it was due to those giving up on looking this month's uptick actually shows some becoming newly encouraged to look for work.