Looking At Unemployment

Within the past week, Statistics Canada reported that the national jobless rate of 7.3 percent for November reflected a rise by 0.2 percentage points from October. CBC News indicates that the performance was "slightly worse than some economists had been expecting."

Also last week, the German Federal Labor Agency reported that the jobless rate for November rose to 10.8 percent from 10.7 percent in October. According to FAZ.NET, "Although seasonally adjusted unemployment continued to rise last month, the increase was lower than expected ...."

And finally, the U.S. Department of Labor reported this week that the November unemployment rate decreased by 0.1 percentage point to a seasonally adjusted value of 5.4 percent. This news was reported as "the weakest gain in five months and barely half what economists had forecast."

In summary,

a) Canada's rate is 7.3% and increasing,

b) Germany's rate is 10.8% and increasing,

c) The United States' rate is 5.4% and decreasing.

Yet, by reading the explanatory words by the mainstream media, one would be led to believe that the U.S. is performing at a level comparable to Canada and Germany. Bias? I think so. My impression is that the media have to wince when writing anything positive about the U.S. Consequently, anything positive is given a negative spin.

Along those lines, an absolutely stellar effort by Edmund Andrews of the NYT has to be singled out. Andrews explains that the U.S. added jobs, but "not enough to keep up with growth in the adult population."

Everyone would agree that the goal is to have unemployment as low as reasonably achievable and, in that regard, the U.S. is doing a better job than many other industrialized countries. Just don't expect the media to explain it that way.