Do j-school students even have to take ONE math class anymore?  The “reporting” on today’s new jobs numbers is just plain embarrassing.

• U.S. Adds 146,000 Jobs; Jobless Rate Falls to 7.7% – NYTimes

• JOBLESS RATE HITS 4-YEAR LOW – MSNBC

• Economy adds 146K jobs in Nov., jobless rate drops – CBS

Yes, it is true that 146,000 jobs were created in November, using the Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers. And using their formula, that brings the official unemployment number to 7.7 percent.

But–and this is a J-Lo sized but—there are other numbers that were released today, too. You tell me if the headlines above tell the “Natural Truth:”

The percentage of working-age Americans in the workforce DROPPED in November to 63.6%.

The number of adults in the labor force dropped by 540,000 in November.

If the same number of workers were out looking for jobs today as when President Obama took office, the unemployment rate would be 10.7 percent, not 7.7 percent.

 Among the various age groups of American workers, the biggest gainer continued to be 55-69 group, adding 177,000 jobs. But the key 25-54 segment LOST 359,000 in November.

Since June, there have been just 847,000 new jobs created overall (at this point in the Reagan recovery, we were creating 800,000 each month). But 621,000 of those jobs—73 percent—were government jobs.

So let me get this straight: There are fewer Americans working this month than last, fewer Americans looking for work, the majority who are finding work are working for the government—a.k.a. “paid for by the rest of the workers”—and the parenting-aged work force has had a net job LOSS… and this is good news for the economy?

There was a day when reporters would, you know, report facts like these to give headlines some context. There was also a day when the president was a Republican…