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Unemployment Numbers Just Not Good Enough
By Peter Morici, Senior Contributor
February 3, 2012
http://www.thestreet.com/

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The economy added 243,000 jobs in January, and unemployment fell to 8.3%. Going forward unemployment is not likely to fall much further and could rise again.

Fourth-quarter growth was stronger as the global economy recovered from first half disruptions such as the earthquake in Japan, but going forward economists expect growth to slow to about 2%.

Job growth in the range of 130,000 should be expected to barely accommodate labor force growth but not much lower the unemployment rate. That is hardly a pace that will restore economic health, or validate President Obama's heavy intervention in the economy and industrial policies in the upcoming presidential campaign.

The unemployment rate would be higher but for the fact that many adults have quit looking for work altogether, and the adult labor force participation rate remains depressed. In January, working age adults not participating in the labor force -- those neither employed nor looking for work -- increased by 88,000.

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