Unemployment Rate Drops — But It’s From People Leaving Workforce, Not New Jobs

The federal government is not presenting the honest story about job numbers, says Americans for Limited Government (ALG), one of the larger conservative political action groups in the country.

ALG, along with other critics, say the real reason unemployment figures dropped slightly in February is because a large number of people stopped looking for work, or dropped out of the workforce.

Although government figures claim the rate went down another 0.2 percent, ALG says those figures are misleading. In order to truly comprehend the unemployment situation, you must consider people who are available for work, but don't have a job.

According to these groups, the unemployment figures don't include some 354,000 people who have exhausted their benefits, and simply are not working and have stopped searching. Thus, the total available pool of potential workers has shrunk, not the unemployment rate.