The results of Obamanomics

[phk]

...
First, the “Not Seasonally Adjusted” Civilian Labor force shrank from 153,022,000 in March to 152,898,000 in April for all persons 16 years and over!

Second, the Civilian noninstitutional population age 16 years and older increased from 239,000,000 in March to 239,146,000 in April.

Now, to rational people, that’s a really odd divergence.  

Is it?  Have you checked with a rational person?

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The labor force declined in previous reporting periods so why would "most" people have expected it to increase in this one?

If it's age 16-65 it's an problematic divergence (people doing an extra semester of college or watever), not just over 16 years old.

Male Labor Force Participation rates are lower in the US than any OECD country.

[phk]

Posting this only since it has CARL's favorite word in all of economics:

http://www.jsonline.com/business/economy-adds-103000-jobs-but-unemployment-rate-stays-at-91-131333799.html

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Of course, unexpected seems to only be CARL's favorite word when the economic news is worse than expected, so he might not appreciate this.  I don't appreciate it either, but for other reasons. It's an improvement, but it's not anywhere near what we need.  Until the eurozone crisis is resolved, I don't expect the economy to improve, which means the economy will likely be blah until at least 2013 and then whoever wins the election will claim credit for doing something about the economy that they didn't really do.  (That will be true if Obama or a Republican wins next November.)

Of course, it's always possible for the government to do something to make the US economy worse, but I don't foresee anything except gridlock to happen between now and 2013.

48k out of 103k was due to the Verizon strike ending.