You’re going to hear a lot about the fact that 290,000 people were hired in April. The administration is touting the number as evidence of the overwhelming success meeting their policies. Unfortunately, as usual with Obama’s numbers, all is not as it seems.

First of all, 66,000 of those jobs are temp jobs created by hiring census workers, leaving about 230,000 new hires in the private sector. That’s all well and good, but the unemployment rate actually rose two points in April, from 9.7% to 9.9%. Why? Well, it seems that some of those people who had previously stopped looking for work, and were no longer receiving unemployment benefits, have run out of cash and are resuming their job search.

So, while 230,000 new jobs were created, there are now more people fighting for them. In fact, the actual unemployment rate (the one that includes people who have given up on their quest for work) has now risen to a whopping 17.1 percent.

So, here’s hoping America is enjoying the “new normal” presented by the Obama administration.  As the actual unemployment rate continues to creep skyward, remember, it’s all just part of ”spreading the wealth around.”

- Robert Laurie