The article I chose came from the Knight Ridder Tribune Business News; Washington; Oct 5, 2002. The article dealt with how the jobless rate for the United States dropped but at the same time the economy shrank by forty three thousand jobs. One of the reasons this happened was because the unemployment rate comes from a survey of about sixty thousand households while the jobs data is derived from payroll data from about three hundred thousand firms. The article also mentions how smaller companies might actually be doing better than medium to large companies. Finally the article mentioned how the senate is working on a bill that would extend unemployment benefits an extra thirteen weeks.
             The article stated many analysts were surprised by the news because the economy normally needs to gain at least 100,000 jobs a month to keep the unemployment rate from rising. To further add to the confusion the economy actually lost forty seven thousand jobs and the unemployment rate still dropped from 5.9 to 5.7. The fall in unemployment suggests to some analysts that the economy may be somewhat stronger than is widely assumed. But most of
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             those same analysts still don't expect the economy to grow fast enough in coming months to cause further drops in unemployment. It is believed that the unemployment rate is going to hover around six percent for the next six months or so. Analysts also expect the economy to grow at a 2.5 to 3.0 percent annual rate, which would not be fast enough to create enough jobs to reduce unemployment. Analysts believed the drop of the unemployment rate has reduced expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates when it next meets on Nov. 6. The Federal Reserve usually only cuts the rate when they want to stimulate economic growth. The news of the drop in unemployment also triggered response from Wall Street wi
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