Maybe we are being too hard on Mayor Anthony Foxx. Running off to White House events and rah-rahing the DNC is pretty much a full-time job. Still, the mayor seems woefully out-of-touch with economic reality in Charlotte. Even city staff manufactured stories like this spin out of control on him:

Today, Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx says those programs are working, to a degree.

“Overall, yes, in the sense that we are at a lower level of unemployment this year than we were two years ago for sure,” Foxx says.

Hmm. Let’s look at the state employment numbers for the city:

Month Workers Jobs Jobless Jobless Rate
May 2009 351,762 317,870 33,892 …9.6
May 2010 352,927 318,278 34,649 …9.8
May 2011 348,940 317,573 31,367 …9.0

The mayor is clearly pumping up the lower unemployment rate, which is fine — provided he is willing to accept how that number was generated.

The unemployment rate did not go down because of an increase in employment. Indeed, Charlotte — just like the county at large — now has fewer total jobs than it did in 2009. At the same time the workforce has shrunk even more. Presto, a drop in the jobless rate.

Now, you can look at the workforce numbers and say one of two things (and this is also something we’ve been pointing out for years now.) Either:

  • A) Discouraged workers are still out there, just no longer looking for work, in which case you need to add X thousands of them back into your workforce total and re-calculate for a higher jobless rate.
  • B) Assume X thousands of them moved away and really are gone for good.

From a political point of view, Option B seems non-starter. Vote Foxx: Shrink the City More! doesn’t quite have a snippy snap to it. By default then you are left with admitting that the unemployment rate is at best meaningless given the overall lack of employment growth.

Mayor Foxx still has time to do that before his star falls into eclipse.