The Economy--Joblessness

The number of unemployment claims increased for the second week in a row.

This despite the fact it is a holiday season.
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Most states saw the unemployment rate go down, but in Nevada at least, it is no real cause to celebrate:

Observers credit recent declines in joblessness to a smaller work force. Nearly 35,000 Nevadans abandoned the state's labor pool in October and November, either giving up the job hunt or leaving the state, and that makes for a smaller share of residents considered unemployed.

Bill Anderson, chief economist for the employment department, called the dwindling labor force a "troubling trend." A decline in unemployment often indicates that a recession is subsiding, but that's not the case here once you look more closely at the data, Anderson said.

You might not think it matters why unemployment drops, just as long as it does. But when joblessness falls because of work-force shrinkage rather than job growth, the trend poses serious implications for the state, said Brian Gordon, a principal in local research firm Applied Analysis. When residents decamp for other states, Nevada's left with fewer taxpayers to bolster an ailing fiscal outlook. And people who quit looking for jobs and drop out of the work force are likely to be on long-term public assistance, which further depletes state and local resources.

Out-migration also affects the housing market, putting more homes on the market with fewer prospective buyers, though that dynamic benefits bargain hunters looking for deals, Gordon noted.

People moving to other states aren't necessarily finding jobs in those states, either.
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So much for the economy adding jobs.

Unemployment going "down" is meaningless if there are few jobs being generated.