Friday, December 4, 2009

U.S. Jobless Rate Falls to 10%

From the NY Times:

U.S. Jobless Rate Falls to 10% as Economy Shed 11,000 Jobs in November

The United States economy shed 11,000 jobs in November, and
the unemployment rate fell to 10 percent, down from 10.2
percent in October, the Labor Department said Friday.



This is a horribly written lead. Just at a glance, I read it as good news that the jobless rate fell from, say, 12% to 10%. But no - the jobless rate actually rose to 10%. Why they would write the jobless rate this way is puzzling. If there was some meter somewhere, it would be of employment with 100% being the full meter (the goal) at the top.

This is misleading at best and downright deceptive at worst. Shame on the NY Times.

In addition, the headline of the story reads "U.S. Economy Lost Only 11,000 Jobs in November." Loses only 11,000 jobs in November??? That's over one-third of the number of troops that Obama deemed as a force overwhelming enough to turn the tide in Afghanistan.

The Times also had the nerve to add:

In the strongest jobs report since the recession began, the government reported Friday that the nation’s employers had all but stopped shedding jobs in November, taking some of the pressure off of President Obama to come up with a jobs creation program.


All but stopped shedding jobs??? Are they kidding??? They're trying to spin 11,000 people losing their jobs right before the holidays as a good thing?

This is mighty convenient spin the day after President Obama;s dog and pony jobs summit. I've seen media shilling for the president before, but this is fully ridiculous.

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