t if you look a little further into the numbers, you see that the American job market is notbetter off than it was four years ago. Indeed, it's a lot worse.
On Inauguration Day in 2009, when Barack Obama took office, the unemployment rate was 7.8 percent (up from 4.4% as recently as May of 2007). Notwithstanding his promises that Porkulus would cap unemployment at 8.5%, it soared to 10% in October of 2009, and didn't dip down below 9% in any sustained way until last fall. Last month, after three years of Obama, it was at 8.3% – or .2% lower than where he said it'd never get above if we spent what he proposed.
That's bad.
"But 8.3% is better than 10%, right?"
Sure – if all you're doing is comparing numbers straight-up. But by itself, the unemployment rate is meaningless. It's a percentage of people out of work – but who are those people? They are the ones that are participating in the labor market.
And fewer Americans than ever -ever! – are doing that!
