On Friday, the Department of Labor announced a net gain of 244,000 jobs in the month of April. But it also reported the overall unemployment rate is back up to 9.0 percent. So why the disconnect? Which number is more likely to be inaccurate? What’s the real jobless rate when factoring in part-time and discouraged job seekers? Is the job situation getting markedly better as President Obama claims? How bad is the housing market and how much is that impacting the overall economy? We ask Diana Furchtgott-Roth, former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor. She was also chief of staff of President George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers. She is now director of the Center for Employment Policy at the Hudson Institute.
