...when there has been a downward trend for the past couple of years? Check it yourself:
https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=z1ebjpgk2654c1_&ctype=l&strail=false&bc s=d&nselm=h&met_y=unemployment_rate&fdim_y=seasona lity:S&scale_y=lin&ind_y=false&rdim=country&idim=c ountry:US&ifdim=country&tstart=946962000000&tend=1 354597200000&hl=en&dl=en&ind=false&q=us+unemployme nt+rate
(Yes, I know. Big link. Nobody said Google was good at making short URLs.)

Notice how the line goes up and down, but goes down more than it goes up. If it were to keep going at the current rate, we'd be down to 3.8% unemployment rate at the end of Obama's second term.. I'm not saying this will happen, as we're bound to hit some sort of asymptote, I'm only saying that the current trend suggests that.

I wonder if these people would be good at managing stocks... Would they sell everything if it goes down by 0.01 points?
Ryde.On: Unemployment rates don't magically start decreasing as soon as a candidate goes into office. It takes time for them to deploy their solution, and more time for those solutions to take full effect.
You people still seem to think you can instantly stop a runaway train with one man. I'll just throw it out there that I wouldn't lose any sleep if you guys tried that out.

As for your 8.5 million leaving the workforce, it is possible that those people retired. If that is the case then that is a good thing since younger people can use those jobs.


Ryan Baker: Are you blind? There is a DOWNWARD TREND. The unemployment rate is NOT rising, it is FALLING. The higher the graph's resolution, the more small deviations appear.

ReasoningWithFacts: We already export more oil than we import. We could accomplish energy independence with a few export tariffs if we really wanted to. Or, we could, you know, develop alternative sources of energy, although I see how you are opposed to actually putting American minds to work solving a problem by innovating.