SYLVIE DOUGLIS, BYLINE: NPR.
(SOUNDBITE OF DROP ELECTRIC SONG, "WAKING UP TO THE FIRE")
ADRIAN MA, HOST:
It's Jobs Friday, that day each month when we check in on the latest government jobs report. Today's report shows that last month, the unemployment rate ticked down to 3.5%. And at the same time, the economy added a not so great but not terrible number of jobs, 187,000 jobs.
Some economists are dialing down the recession chatter. That soft landing, Adrian - I can almost feel it.
MA: Hopefully, hopefully. But, you know, before we get too excited here, we're going to put an asterisk on this jobs numbers today because the thing that we so often refer to simply as the jobs number, it doesn't actually refer to all the jobs. Technically, it refers to what the number-crunchers call nonfarm payrolls.
WONG: Yeah, nonfarm payrolls as in jobs that don't take place on a farm. And that's a little weird if you think about it, excluding farm jobs, because the data suggests there are at least 2 1/2 million farm workers in this country. They're in the fields planting and picking fruits and vegetables. They're on cattle farms, in poultry plants and fisheries. So if you're the kind of person who, I don't know, needs food to live - hopefully, that describes you...
MA: Me. Yep.
WONG: Yeah, yeah - these jobs ought to matter a lot to you.
MA: That's right. But, you know, farm employment numbers are actually historically very hard to track, partly because they fluctuate a lot from season to...
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