January jobs report: 113,000 jobs added, 6.6% unemployment rate

January jobs report: 113,000 jobs added, 6.6% unemployment rate. Since according to the White House, fewer people working is good news, should we now be saying freedom rate instead of unemployment rate?

This post was last modified on April 10, 2021

Bonfire of the Absurdities: After 35 year career writing software for IBM mainframes, am now self-employed contractor thinking of joining a union and striking for higher wages. Cured morbid fear of heights when I learned to look at them as lengths standing on end. Uncompromising in refusal to accept browser cookies. Amateur investor who has accumulated a small fortune in the market after starting out years ago with a large one. For recreation, I run, hike, kayak and play tennis but will not consider synchronized swimming under any circumstances.

View Comments (17)

  • Actually, I guess the whole thing about being unemployed being a good thing might have come true for me, in a way. There was so little work available in my profession, heavy construction, that I decided to stop fighting the losing battle and take an early retirement.

    Now, I have fun for a living. No, I don't make as much money as I used to, but I do have lots of fun. I can't afford health insurance, but I do have fun. I'm living retirement check to retirement check, but I do have fun. I'm one step from financial disaster, but I do have fun. Now, if I could just figure out a way to get paid more for having fun.

    • Make and sell scale models of Vlad. It will give people a tangible reminder of the fun they had and they will be sure to come back again.

  • In case anybody is wondering how the unemployment rate ticked down with only 113,000 new jobs, which seems mathematically impossible, the Obama administration pulled a new trick out of their bag. They've gone about as far as they can removing people from the workforce to make the rate look good. They needed something new. So they made a retroactive adjustment. They added about 360,000 new jobs to March of 2013. Voila! Instead of 113,000 new jobs in January, the stats include an increase of 113,000 + 360,000 = 473,000 new jobs.

    There is no explanation for why they suddenly discovered 360,000 new jobs they missed last March. We are just supposed to trust them.

  • These clowns are so busy trying to positively fudge the numbers, they're contradicting themselves. Much like Quagmire's cast of idiots saying that being unemployed and broke is a good thing cuz you get to follow your dreams.

    • Much like Quagmire’s cast of idiots saying that being unemployed and broke is a good thing cuz you get to follow your dreams......unless, of course, your dream is to be employed and solvent.

  • Wonder why they don't report the "Real" unemployment rate of 23 percent? I mean if things are so fricking good the government should be honest..oh wait I forget who runs the government..gypsies tramps and thieves......

  • So, let me get this straight. Being unemployed or being cut back from full time to part time is a good thing. Then, the next day, adding jobs to the economy is a good thing? I'm so confused.

    • Winston, you will be much happier if you just accept the word of Big Brother, otherwise, we will have to send you to the Ministry of Love.

      • I was at the Ministry of Love yesterday, with a handful of ones. Or was that the Ministry of Lust?

        • Love, Lust, it all blurs together when you're sitting there with a drink and a handful of ones. I used to be a bouncer at one of those joints, I've seen guys drop a weeks pay on someone they were "in love" with.

          • Yeah, just a little bit of healthy lust is much cheaper. But I DO have appointments to do some tattoo photography with a couple of girls. So maybe I'll get to make my money back. And of course, I can write off what I spent.

  • What a total cluster for the dim wits and quagmire. They try and try to tell those of us who are working that things are better. Yea right, yet those who are actually working is at a near 40 year low and the unemployment rate among teens is in the high teens or low 20s and the black teen unemployment is in the 30s.

    Yet all those fools who believed in that hope and change won't and can't bring themselves to admit that they were stupid and bought into the lies and bull shit.

    SUCKERS all.