The Labor Department posted what some would say are encouraging employment numbers this past Friday. Unemployment rates dropped in 29 states, remained unchanged in 11, and rose in 10. Meanwhile, hiring rose in 33 states. They claim that even more comforting is the fact that many of these states with decreased unemployment rates were high-population states such as New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and Texas. But the biggest drop in unemployment came from South Carolina, which fell to 5.7% from 6.4%. However, South Carolina actually lost jobs in total last month. So the drop in the unemployment rate is misleading and really represents a large number of discouraged workers who have given up on searching for employment. Similarly, unemployment rose nationwide last month, from 6.6% to 6.7%. This is a result of more Americans looking for work though, which suggests optimism in the workforce. 175,000 jobs were added nationwide in February, when compared to 129,000 in January and 84,000 December, which seems hopeful until you compare it to the nationwide average from the last 2 years which is about 175,000 also. These results also come from different surveys which can yield misleading numbers. The number of jobs in each state comes from a survey of employers while the unemployment rate is from a survey of households. So I’d call this a wash and it does not appear that unemployment gains are as successful as they appear.
Story:
Data: