[[{“type”:“media”,“view_mode”:“media_large”,“fid”:null,“attributes”:{“class”:“media-image alignright size-full wp-image-31840”,“typeof”:“foaf:Image”,“style”:“”,“width”:“100”,“height”:“100”,“alt”:“The Independent”}}]]Professor David Blanchflower begins an opinion piece in The Independent by mentioning that he asked his Dartmouth students to examine the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ December jobs report. “In class the day before, I wrote the word surprise in large capital letters on the blackboard, and told them to determine whether there was anything surprising in the report,” writes Blanchflower.

Sharing his insights about the report, Blanchflower, the Bruce V. Rauner Professor of Economics, writes, “The unemployment rate dropped from 7 percent to 6.7 percent, but the drop in unemployment of 490,000 was less than the 525,000 who withdrew from the labour force.”

He continues, “Most commentators didn’t spot that average private-sector weekly earnings fell on the month from $833.18 to $831.45. On the same day, a report on the Canadian labour market showed a big drop in employment. Two nasty surprises.”

Read the full opinion piece, published 1/19/14 by The Independent.