November unemployment smoke and mirrors. A Limerick

So if you are one of the millions of workers, ready, willing and able to work but not being able to find any for years, you may feel like this:

If unemployed year after year,

discouraged, a case less severe.

Do not go ballistic,

you are a statistic.

A loser, a discard, you hear?

This is one of the reasons why Donald Trump won!

It seems at first glance to be only good news on the labor front with the unemployment rate the lowest in nine years. But on second look it is all massaged data.  The employable population grew by 219,000 people, the labor force shrunk by 226,000 people, the number employed grew by 160,000, much less than the population increase, and yet  the unemployment rate dropped by 0.3%. Why? 445,000 people left or failed to enter the labor force. In addition the average pay declined by 3 cents/hour.

The Trump presidency can’t come soon enough!