Job statistics are misleading because they don’t accurately give current employment figures. It seems their only purpose these days is to provide content for the media and data on which politicians can contrive messages that help confuse an economically illiterate voting public.
Many job seekers give up looking when there is a prolonged recession. Thus the truly unemployed figure always looks better than it is.
The unemployed tend not to look for employment energetically until unemployment insurance is ready to run out. So extending the periods of insurance during recessions may appear compassionate, but makes unemployment statistics more acceptable than they would ordinarily be.
In addition, many jobs may be part time or temporary during recessions. Employers are unable to hire permanent help, or fear hiring because of rising costs and taxes.This adds to the confusion.
So we constantly measure apples and oranges and produce questionable numbers that the media loves to repeat as gospel. (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole at Twitter.)
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