New labor stats: Unemployment rolls lowest since 1973

As we always emphasize, this is only a part of the employment picture, but it’s an important part because it measures not just people who are unemployed, but people who are actually receiving government unemployment benefits as a result of being unemployed. That is not only an indicator of productivity but also of what it’s costing taxpayers to see these people not working. Unemployment benefits are generally administered by the states, although there is some federal money involved in funding it. You’ll recall that during times of high unemployment, Congress has been known to pass never-ending “extensions” of the standard 26-week limit on benefits, and that gets expensive to the taxpayers. At a time like this, an awful lot of other things are costing the taxpayers dearly, but this isn’t – at least in relative terms: