http://loyalopposition.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/02/the-despair-index/?nl=op inion <http://loyalopposition.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/02/the-despair-index/?nl=o pinion&emc=tyb1> &emc=tyb1
an excerpt President Obama never expected to campaign for re-election on lowering the jobless rate to pre-recession levels; all he really needs is a trend in the right direction. He got that this morning with the announcement <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/03/business/economy/us-adds-120000-jobs-unem ployment-drops-to-8-6.html> that unemployment had fallen to 8.6 percent from its sticky 9 percent level most of the year, and you can expect to hear about that drop from the president and his surrogates for some time. It's one of the best job reports in a long while. But the commentary issued this morning <http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/12/02/employment-situation-november> by Alan Krueger, chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, didn't hide the fact that more than half the drop in the rate came from people giving up and leaving the labor force - call it the Despair Index. And the number of long-term unemployed - for 27 weeks or longer - was essentially unchanged at 5.7 million people. That's 43 percent of all jobless people. Teresa Tritch, who writes about the economy for the Editorial Board, notes that the economy is not expanding at a pace that will reduce the huge ranks of the unemployed. There's also been a tick downward in the weekly hours of work for most employees, and in average hourly earnings. "It's a deep rut," she says. "The tires are spinning, spattering mud, but there's no traction."
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