Headlines like this one really annoy me: “N.C. job growth surges in March,” proclaims the News and Observer. Its not that I am somehow against people finding jobs. Heck, I know quite a few who need one. My beef is that the article drawing conclusions against data which does not necessarily support them.

Herein lies the problem:

More than 32,000 North Carolinians dropped off the unemployment roster in March because they found work or exhausted their jobless benefits, the largest one-month decline in 26 years. (emphasis mine)

That’s a pretty big “or.” You can’t say “people found jobs,” if they have only given up on unemployment benefits. It’s like saying that since there are no elephants in your living room, elephants don’t exist.

I once had the misfortune of filling out unemployment forms and waiting at the employment security commission offices to find work. It was not fun, nor was it particularly productive. Time spent waiting around to be seen could better be spent knocking on doors or submitting resumes. I came to treat it as a joke.

And so do many others, from what I understand. They, too, may have been put off by the bureacracy of the ESC and found a better way. Or given up. No one knows.

That’s the real problem here: nobody knows why these people have dropped off the rolls. Did anyone call them to find out if they actually found work? The way the ESC is so overworked now, I’m sure there are no resources to do this.

I’d be the first to cheer if the ranks of the jobless are shrinking, believe me. But let’s have some data which supports this conclusion before we assume that these folks got jobs.

Don’t forget that the employment security commission’s mission is to drive people away.