Opinion

Obama’s numbers game

The Issue: The federal government’s recent report of a dip in US unemployment numbers.

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The US Department of Labor claimed that after adding 120,000 jobs in November, the unemployment rate fell to 8.6 percent (“Those Jobless Numbers,” Editorial, Dec. 3).

The formula to drop unemployment 0.1 percent used to be: Add 250,000 jobs. Either our economy is really amiss, or this is just propaganda for President Obama’s reelection campaign.

Anthony Arena

Staten Island

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What the White House and most of the left-wing media don’t tell us about the new job numbers is that in November and December, thousands of ski resorts across the country hire seasonal workers — like in Telluride and Mountain Village, Colo.

Hundreds of new workers are hired, but they will then be laid off in April.

Dale Wilhitee

Montrose, Colo.

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I was happy to learn that, for the first time in a couple years, the unemployment rate was under 9 percent.

I hope this continues. There were quite a few people who got jobs, but the main reason for the drop was the number of people who gave up seeking jobs.

We have to wait and see whether the numbers are really that favorable. I hope they are.

Rollo Giannini

Norwalk, Conn.