In an uncharacteristically critical editorial on Sunday, the El Paso Times noted the limits of El Paso’s recent unemployment report.
Preliminary data indicate that El Paso’s unemployment rate was at 7.9 percent at the close of 2013 and ended 2014 at 5.7 percent, averaging 7.2 percent for the year compared to the 8.8 percent average for 2013. That’s certainly a positive trend.
But more than a third of the decline in El Paso’s unemployment rate is attributable to a drop in the labor force, which is defined as those with jobs and those who are unemployed and seeking work.
El Paso’s labor force averaged about 323,500 in 2014, down from 325,800 a year earlier. In 2012 El Paso’s labor force averaged more than 326,000. If our labor force was as large as in 2012, El Paso’s 2014 average unemployment would have been 8 percent.
So maybe El Pasoans have quit looking for work, or maybe, seeing the impending tax tsunami, they’ve left town. Either way, it’s nice to see the Times reporting something other than It’s All Good.
I think you should also know who’s not being counted….Obama or Leeser claiming 5.9 and bantering “lowest unemployment rate” blah blah bla is more about taking credit where none is deserved or due.
http://www.gallup.com/opinion/chairman/181469/big-lie-unemployment.aspx?utm_source=facebookbutton&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=sharing