Truth in media

What's really interesting about this article is that even though the unemployment figures are being touted as great news (and as "bad news for the Democrats"), the important "but" is right in the first sentence.

(CBS/AP - December 5) The nation's unemployment rate dipped to 5.9 percent in November, but the number of new jobs generated by the economy was a disappointing 57,000. ...

[E]economists expected payroll growth of about 140,000 in November, according to a survey conducted by CBS MarketWatch.

Economists are looking for monthly payroll gains of 200,000 to 300,000 to significantly lower the unemployment rate and sustain a labor market recovery.

In other words, in terms of an overall economic recovery, the "drop" was little more than a meaningless statistical glitch, with payroll growth little more than a third of what was expected and, more importantly, no more than roughly a quarter of what's needed. The change represents good news for the folks who got jobs, but doesn't seem to indicate any good times a'comin'.

Oh, and by the way,

[t]he nation's factories continue to struggle. Job losses continued for 39th consecutive month in November, with payrolls falling by 17,000. But the pace has slowed significantly.

Is that because things are starting to turn around? Or just that there's little left to lose? Somehow, when the best news is that things are still getting worse, just more slowly, I don't feel a real surge of confidence.

Addendum: From the Financial Times for December 13:

A fall in consumer sentiment in December has further damped some of the more exaggerated hopes over the strength of the US economic recovery.

The University of Michigan's consumer confidence index - which had been widely expected to rise - fell back from 93.7 to 89.6. The bulk of the fall was caused by consumers taking a less upbeat assessment of the present state of the economy, but expectations also fell fractionally.

Economists said the figures were disappointing and appeared to be at odds with continued signs of strength in consumer spending.

But not at all at odds with continued signs of struggle in people's lives, people who know things the economists don't because they have to live in a real world where "creative accounting methods" means figuring out which bill they can afford to pay this week rather than which tax dodge is the most profitable, people who are trying to survive an economy where extended unemployment benefits will disappear over the holidays even as long-term unemployment remains at its worst level in 10 years and Congress runs to continue a dozen "temporary" corporate tax breaks. People who may not know all the figures and details and deals and favors - but who damn well know the effects.