Yes, the 8.6% number is a nice number on its surface, there are still many reasons to not break out the bubbly.
1) Some 350,000 people left the labor workforce, meaning people who have looked so long in vain, they've stopped looking. Those people just aren't being counted anymore. Hardly a victory...
2) Of the new jobs, 50,000 of them are retail sector jobs, many of which may be seasonal hires for the Holidays. These jobs may not exists come January...
3) As many signs point toward a slow, steady recovery with the economy, if people who have left the workforce decide to resume looking for work again, they'll be added back into the computations, which will likely increase the overall unemployment rate.
Bottom line, yes, it's a nice number that President Obama can gently refer to over the next few weeks as some good news. I'll need to see a pattern of sustained improvement over a period of a few months before I get too excited. I think the chances are higher that the unemployment rates increases in the first quarter of 2012 than it decreases.
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