Makes sense. Thanks for the info.

JLamont, here is a similar but more in-depth explantion, http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/12/if-economy-lost-jobs-why-did.html

JLamont, great question. There are two surveys that the government conducts to get its measures for employment. One is the Current Population Survey (CPS) which is based on a sample of 60,000 households. The other is the Current Employment Statistics survey (CES) or the “payroll” survey which looks at 160,000 businesses and government agencies. The first is used for the unemployment rate while the second is used for the jobs figure. So since the surveys use different methodologies there can be differences between the two figures that seem odd, as in the unemployment rate going down when jobs are lost. Another important point to consider is that sometimes the labor force shrinks, that less people are looking for jobs, say an increase in disgruntled workers who have decided to stop sending out resumes. When the participation rate goes down, you can have a drop in the unemployment rate as well. For this month’s figure we saw a big revision to the past two month’s in which the amount of jobs lost was fewer than expected, so those revisions can have an effect as well.

I have a question – We lost 11,000 jobs, which is less than expected, but still a net loss of jobs. So how does the unemployment rate go down? Shouldn’t it go up by less?