Unemployment Drops 0.2% - But NOT Due To Job Creation

The Labor Department has issued its statistics for the month of September. It shows that the official unemployment rate dropped by 0.2 points -- to 4.2%. The Trump administration is bragging about that, but they shouldn't be. That's because, for the first time in seven years, the economy failed to produce any new jobs. In fact, it lost 33,000 jobs. The drop in the official rate is due to a drop in the official count of unemployed people (by 331,000). Since the drop was not due to job creation, it is likely it was due to people dropping out (either by retiring or giving up on trying to find a decent job).

Here are the relevant statistics for September:

SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORKFORCE:

161,146,000

OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:

6,801,000

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

4.2%

DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT:

Adult men...............3.9%
Adult women...............3.9%
Teens (16-19)...............12.9%
Whites...............3.7%
Blacks...............7.0%
Hispanics...............5.1%
Asians...............3.7%
Less than H.S. grad...............6.5%
H.S. graduate...............4.3%
Some college...............3.6%
Bachelor's degree or more...............2.3%

NUMBER OF MARGINALLY-ATTACHED WORKERS (unemployed but not included in official count):

1,569,000

MORE REALISTIC NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE:

8,370,000

MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

5.19%