Yes, but the unemployment rate went up to 4.7%, Matt--the country's falling apart. So what if more people are seeking work, and so what if "full employment" is some 6% or so unemployment. I have a job, and the economy's pretty good in my life, but I'm worried about my neighbor. To hell in a handbasket, that's where we're headed.

//sarcasm off//

Hombre,

I blame the tax cuts the evil Bush has given to the "richest 1% of Americans". Damn them for creating all those new jobs.

As a reminder, if you already didn't know, the unemployment stats of 4.7% only represent the number of people on unemployment. Once the benifits are used up, they are no longer included in that statistic.

Chris,
That's not true at all; the unemployment numbers have nothing to do with the claims for unemployment insurance. The number is from the bls, based on a survey; as it always has been.

God bless you President George W. Bush for presiding over the longest period of employment growth in american history and the strongest economy in american history. Thank you for lowering my taxes, allowing my elderly mother to buy her prescription drugs at a lower cost, for keeping us safe from attack for over 6 years, for ridding the world of tyrants and freeing 50 million people and giving hope to millions more. Record in the S&P 500, Dow 14,066. Those private accounts under President Bush's social security reform plan would be looking pretty good now. God bless you President George W. Bush, the greatest president in american history.

So, Chris, are you suggesting that there are significant numbers of people out there who just can't FIND jobs, yet who are underreported because of a technicality? Or are you just tossing out a nugget of information?

I live in a county where we can't find people to fill the jobs available. I am planning to move to a county where it's even worse. To get some basic handyman work done on a house there, I had to pay people to drive four hours, and put them up in a motel.

If I were to put myself at the center of the universe (just wanted to find out what it would feel like to be a Lib...) I would say that, very conservatively, within a radius of 300 miles from where I sit there are jobs waiting for someone to fill them.

I live in Colorado. I will be moving to Wyoming. A welder I know is making $80 an hour working in the oil fields, and he goes on the clock when they call him and stays on till he gets home, often 10 days later. This spills over---you can't find an electrician, a plumber, a sheet metal worker, or a welder, just to name a few, within several counties. Those who stay home are swamped and can't find help, and the others have gone off to pick up some big bucks. I was on a waitlist for seven weeks to get an electrician out to my house, and he told me he was working on a house owned by a man from Pittsburgh (PA) who was stunned to hear of the employment crunch in the West--he said that unemployment is high where he is. All I can say is, there are those who follow opportunity and those who sit on their cans and whine. Service in restaurants is bad, because they can't even find waiters or kitchen staff. I don't know about executive positions, but I know I have to wait a week to get my car fixed because the repair shop can't find mechanics.

I guess we should raise taxes to slow down the economy around here, so there are fewer jobs and more people who want them.

"he said that unemployment is high where he is. All I can say is, there are those who follow opportunity and those who sit on their cans and whine."

You nailed it Almiranta. It used to be that people followed the jobs and the opportunity. That's how the west was settled. And to a large degree that accounts for the boom in the South and the Southwest of the US.

But there is a large number of people in the inner cities who whine and complain and expect the jobs to come to them. They have either been spoiled by the union "us against them mentaiity" or by the nanny state mentality that the libs have foisted on the US. Rather than pulling up stakes and moving to find work, they'd rather feed at the government trough, and blame "the man".

Their victimhood is eagerly fed and nurtured by leftists who are determined to make the US as socialist workers paradise.