A new and more accurate way to report the monthly change in unemployment [View All]

[ThomWV]

Every month the unemployment rate is announced and what the change was, if any, between the current month and the preceding month. So in a typical report it might be said that' Unemployment is down to 9% and that jobs are up by 200,000 from last month.' or something similar. In any even if unemployment is down the President takes credit for it and if unemployment is up the President is criticized severely for it.

But if you've paid attention to the report lately you've probably noticed that what they report is the increase or decrease in "private sector' jobs and more often than not that number is eclipsed by layoffs in the Government sector, primarily from the Republican Governors. It was noticing that little tidbit that led me to think of a better way to describe the monthly changes in employment. Here is an example of how I think it should be reported:

"Unemployment increased to 10% during the month of August. Though the President was successful in adding 215,000 new private sector jobs unfortunately the Republican Governors laid off 261,000 employees during the month for a net loss of 46,000 jobs."

I think reporting it like this would better inform the public.