This has been discussed adnoseum in dozens of threads. Just look in any thread that talks about the Unemployment rate. But it bears repeating. The drop in the Unemployment rate is not a reflection of a roaring economy. The drop in the rate is a reflection of negative underlying data such as increase in part time job versus full time jobs..... and discouraged workers just giving up.
Don't be fooled by the superficial number.
Here's What Obama's 'Part-Time America' Really Looks Like
The president's critics
love this talking point.
But since 2010, full-time jobs are up 7.6 million, and part-time jobs have declined by more than 900,000.
Three thoughts for the road:
1)
Most people working part-time want to work part-time because they're in school, or they're raising kids, or they consider themselves mostly retired. Don't pay attention to anybody who's using the number of stay-at-home dads and moms to argue that Obamacare is destroying full-time work.
2) Last fall, the Fed produced a useful document explaining that "current levels of part-time work are largely within historical norms, despite increases for selected demographic groups, such as prime-age workers with a high-school degree or less."
3) If you insist on being a pessimist,
here's a very smart way to express fear about the future of part-time work, also from the Fed. There are some industries, such as hotels, food service, and retail, that have historically had shorter workweeks and more part-time workers. If those sectors continue to grow faster than the overall economy (because other sectors, like government and manufacturing, are shrinking), then we should expect part-time work to remain elevated. Indeed, the relative strength of those industries today is one reason why part-time work hasn't declined even faster than it has.
Here s What Obama s Part-Time America Really Looks Like - The Atlantic