While reading Common Sense Economics (previous post) this morning on the EL, I ran across this assertion by the authors:

“…it is important to keep in mind that it is production that really matters, not jobs. If jobs were the key to high incomes, we could easily create as many as we wanted. All of us could work one day digging holes and the next day filling them up. We would all be employed but we would also be exceedingly poor because such jobs would not generate goods and services that people value.”

Makes perfect common sense to me. So, why is there such a huge emphasis on reporting the “unemployment rate?”

The authors point out the most likely reason for this as well… political agendas and special interest groups.

What do you think?