The headlines today trumpet a decline in the unemployment rate to 9.0%, however only 36,000 jobs were created.  The rate drop is due to the absurd policy of the Bureau of Labor Statistics not to count those who dropped out of the labor and ceased looking for a job.A more important but unreported statistic is the massive drop in the labor force.  Today at 64.2%, the labor force participation rate (as a percentage of the total civilian noninstitutional population) is now at a 26 year low.  In January of 2000 it hit 67.5% by comparison.This  the lowest since 1984 and is the primary reason the unemployment rate has dropped to 9.0%.   Those not in the labor force has increased from 83.9 million to 86.2 million (a drop of 2.2 million on just one year).In calculating the unemployment rate the BLS is now counting only 13.9 million as unemployed compared to 15 million two months ago when only 80,000 jobs created.  These are the disenchanted, no longer looking...(Read Full Post)