LOL! Sorry about the Pravda headline. Labor Participation Rate Drops To 36 Year Low; Record 92.6 Million Americans Not In Labor Force While by now everyone should know the answer, for those curious why the US unemployment rate just slid once more to a meager 5.9%, the lowest print since the summer of 2008, the answer is the same one we have shown every month since 2010: the collapse in the labor force participation rate, which in September slide from an already three decade low 62.8% to 62.7% - the lowest in over 36 years, matching the February 1978 lows. And while according to the Household Survey, 232K people found jobs, what is more disturbing is that the people not in the labor force, rose to a new record high, increasing by 315,000 to 92.6 million! And that's how you get a fresh cycle low in the unemployment rate. So the next time Obama asks you if you are better off now than 6 years ago show him this chart of the employment to population ratio: it speaks volumes.
Obama needed unemployment to be below eight percent to make it look like his economic plan wasn't a complete flop. And this labor force participation rate is about the most easily manipulated of all economic numbers. Mighty suspicious.
I don't understand how there is subjectivity. The criteria are clearly defined, and have not been redefined as long as I can recall.
Sorry I was so abrupt,TT. Here's the kind of thing I'm referring to: " Understanding Workforce Participation & Unemployment The term "Workforce Participation Rate" sounds so dull that it could put even an economist to sleep. And for most of our lives it has in fact been a remarkably boring statistic, changing only at an excruciatingly slow pace. However, in recent years and months, "labor force participation" has become a mystery worthy of CSI or Sherlock Holmes. Bizarre, inexplicable things are happening quite rapidly within this dry and deeply obscure measure. And, by fascinating coincidence, if these odd reductions in the workforce participation rate were not occurring, then the picture of the economy and employment that is being presented to us - changes radically. " from: Making 9 Million Jobless "Vanish": How The Government Manipulates Unemployment Statistics at: http://danielamerman.com/articles/2012/WorkC.html
Ok, before we debate the "how", let me ask you why Obama would want to manipulate a statistic that would only make him look worse.