This is actually the best jobs report we've had in a long while. The benchmark unemployment rate dropped to 7.0% from 7.3%. The number of jobs created is still paltry; the labor participation rate dropped - but you'd hardly notice; and the numbers are slightly skewed because federal workers, counted as unemployed last month during the shutdown, came back to work. But 200,000 jobs on the plus side means that a few more Americans are going to have a merry Christmas. Reuters: The unemployment rate dropped three tenths of a percentage point to its lowest level since November 2008 as some federal workers who were counted as jobless in October returned to work after a 16-day partial shutdown of the government. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast payrolls rising only 180,000 last month and the unemployment rate falling to 7.2 percent from 7.3 percent. Job gains for September and October were revised to show 8,000 more jobs created than previously reported, lending more...(Read Full Post)