Re: re: unemployment rate

[Doug Henwood]

Margaret Coleman wrote:

>The unemployment rate fell by a tenth last month, instead of going up as
>everyone predicted.  This is despite all the tech closings and lay
>offs.  Anyone want to guess why?

Because the U.S. labor force fell by 485,000. Employment (in the 
household survey) fell by about 252,000. The EPR fell by 0.1 
percentage point to 63.9%, down from 64.5% in January. The 
participation rate fell by 0.3 points. Employment (by the household 
survey) is off over 900,000 since January - though it's up by some 
25,000 in the establishment survey.

Doug