The unemployment rate "jumped" to 5%. That's bad news. Of course, the fact that 95% of the workforce is employed must be bad news also. 95% of us are working.

Of course, if you've read Dickens' Hard Times it may make sense for someone to say that the unemployment rate, for the unemployed, is 100%. (Think about it.)

But notice, in the report, how the the payroll increase is reported: It's the weakest since August 2003. Okay, the increase is the weakest since '03. But...it's still an increase for crying out loud. Which would you rather be? One of the 5% unemployed? One of those who received an increase in pay -- even if it were the weakest increase in comparison with your increases of past years?

Or, perhaps you'd like to live in Germany, where the unemployment rate is 7.9%?

Talk about ingratitude.