The government reported today that the unemployment rate dropped this month from 9% to 8.6%. That’s a huge drop for one month so it may be revised upward later. What many people don’t realize is that the reported unemployment rate includes a lot of adjustments for things like seasonal factors. There is also a guess as to how many jobs small businesses are creating since they do not participate in the government surveys. November is also a notoriously difficult month to get right because the seasonal factors for things like Christmas hiring are large.
Still, to put things in perspective, the trend in the various unemployment reports has been in the direction of better employment. It also appears that small businesses that are not construction-related have been starting to add jobs. So that’s a good thing. We should see a strong market today.