Unemployment Rate Rises to 9.9%

According to recently released figures, the unemployment rate rose from 9.7% to 9.9%, and 290,000 jobs were added. So, how can the number of jobs increase AND the unemployment rate rise? That's because discouraged workers are starting to come back into the workforce.

Which means, of course, the unemployment has ALWAYS been higher than 10%. Not counting people because they stopped looking is sophistry and ignoring reality.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/36925.html

In an announcement that was keenly watched in Washington, on Wall Street and around the world Friday, the U.S. government said its economy added 290,000 jobs in the month of April, although the unemployment rate edged up to 9.9 percent. The job creation was more robust than many market watchers had expected.

You're going to hear a lot of speculation in coming months about how the "improved outlook" will effect the Democrats' chances in the next elections. Everybody can take some guesses, but here's my thought.

If the Democrats do NOT lose seats in the upcoming elections, we will continue to see legislation that is disliked by the majority of Americans... and have them push the laws through anyway. The only way to bring our government back from the brink of unrestrained partisanship is to reduce or remove their majorities in Congress.

Having a single party in charge of the White House AND both houses of Congress is an incredibly BAD idea, because they start thinking like entitled royalty and forget to think about all of us who DON'T like their partisan agendas. And this is true REGARDLESS of the party in power.

So we may see some job gains in coming months, but the "official" unemployment rate isn't falling anytime soon. Why not? because the real figure is closer to 15% or 20%, and it's going to take some time for all those workers to re-enter the job search market and find jobs.