Unemployment in economics is a lagging indicator, in Politics it is a Dealth Knell... Unemployed people also vote for Change. I suspect that this

number is misleading, since people who are working part-time only, but looking for full-time, and anyone that has given up looking for awhile and ran out of unemployment checks, also falls off that number, so the FULL UNEMPLOYED NUMBER is closer to 17 %...

U.S. employers cut payrolls by 85,000 in December. The unemployment rate, calculated using a survey of households as opposed to companies, remained at 10%. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had expected a payroll decrease of just 10,000, and for the jobless rate to edge up to 10.1%. November payrolls were revised to a gain of 4,000 from a loss of 11,000.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126295679510421517.html?mod=djemalertNEWS