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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (513147)	12/19/2003 3:20:06 PM
From: Bill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

that's because they changed the definitions. Who did? Got a link?

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (513147)	12/19/2003 3:56:32 PM
From: Oeconomicus	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Those numbers you referred to only report NEW unemployment claims (still, valuable info.), but not the total of the unemployed. I didn't say a word about "NEW unemployment claims." I responded DIRECTLY to your claim that people are "disappearing" from the workforce and the numbers counted as unemployed because they've given up looking for work, which is absolutely false. The "participation rate" rose by .1%, the size of the civilian labor force rose by 484k, the numbers "not in labor force" fell by 244k, the number of employed persons rose by 589k and the number of people describing themselves as unemployed fell by 105k in the month of November. What don't you get? As for changes in definitions, I find nothing to support your claim that any item in the November unemployment or payrolls report was impacted by a change of definitions. Unless you can provide some kind of proof, I have to figure you're either lying or clueless. "Unemployed", BTW, includes anyone not working who has actually looked for work in the last 4 weeks - otherwise, they are in the "not in labor force" number, along with anyone over 16 who has no intention of looking for work. The numbers of "discouraged" and "marginally attached" workers (looked for work in the last 12 months, but not the last 4 weeks; the former being a subset of the latter) in that number were 457k and 1.47 million, respectively. Both of these numbers dropped in November, BTW - the latter by 113k. Better find some new numbers to spin, buddy.