Obama inherited an economy that lost 750,000 jobs in his first month in office.

[sad sally]

33. The hokus-pokus employment/unemployment numbers must always be believed - just like the belief

in the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. Our government has always had a difficult time telling its citizens the truth because we don't want the truth - we just want the good news, spare us reality.

President Obama didn't create the numbers system used - and yes, Bush & Co really screwed with the country. So what more Americans live in poverty, more children are hungry and homeless, at least there have been 2 million jobs created in three years.
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In simple terms, the unemployment rate for any area is the number of area residents without a job and looking for work divided by the total number of area residents in the labor force. However, the methods used to produce this data are not so simple.

Attempting to contact every household, as is done in the decennial census, to count every person that is unemployed would be far too time consuming and costly. At the same time, counting only those persons filing claims for unemployment benefits does not account for all persons who don’t have a job and want to work. Consequently, other methods must be used.

The national unemployment rate is computed solely from a nationwide survey of about 60,000 households conducted by the Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Residents of selected households are asked, among other questions, about their employment status. From their responses, the Bureau of Labor Statistics then estimates the size of the labor force – all people employed and unemployed – and the number of people who are jobless.

and Viola! - the magic numbers appear!