Sorry...I didnt go to an ivy league school or anything like that, but they say unemployment dropped from 10.2% to 10% yet the entire economy lost 11k jobs. So i guess i just dont understand the math. Dont you have to GAIN jobs for unemployment to go down? I guess the government could be counting mexicans that are leaving the US to go to mexico in hopes of getting a job there. But even then, about 300k of them would have to leave with no new ones coming back in.
If your confused on that-- wait till you get to the birth/death adjustment. It'll really bake your noodle.
Read the link I posted here: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=184664 It should help clear that up for you.
Legitimate question . . . until you realize that the government controls the reporting of both numbers. Likely answer: probably because there are a lot more than 11k seasonal jobs added that skew the umemployment survey numbers . . . or maybe a whole lot of people died who are no longer part of the labor force - the inverted baby boomer paradox perhaps .