Econbrowser has a post up today thoroughly debunking the conspiracy theories surrounding last Friday’s BLS estimate that the unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent last month: Watergate! Iran-Contra! BLS 2012.10.5?
The number of people identifying themselves as unemployed (looking for work but unable to find any) fell by 456,000 over the month.
The U.S. economy continues on a slow recovery. Given slowdowns in Europe and China and the long hangover from the housing bust, there’s very little prospect of a dramatically increased pace of recovery anytime soon.
The U.S. economy added a very disappointing 69,000 jobs in May, according to results of the monthly survey of payroll establishments released this morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
