Of all the recession's problems, the one that has shown the least statistical improvement is unemployment. New figures from the Labor Department last week reported substantial unemployment (6% or more) in 74 cities during March, down from 76 cities in January but worse than January last year. When the overall March unemployment figures are released this week, they will probably show a 300,000 reduction in unemployment, to about 4,400,000. Seasonally adjusted, the figure is still about 6% of the labor force, and it leads economists to wonder if perhaps they should take a new reading on what is "normal" unemployment.
The...
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