Unemployment falls to three-year low at 8.3%. Sort of.

January's unemployment rate was 8.3%- the lowest in three years. Debate has promptly broken out as to whether we have turned a corner in our national recovery from the Great Recession, or whether the news is less heartening than it seems

A record 1.2 million Americans left the labor force in January. The percentage of Americans who are actually working has fallen to a 30-year low. The number of people not participating in the labor force has exploded at the same time the number of people who are has grown, and as a result the new unemployment figures paint a deceptively rosy picture. When people stop looking for work, unemployment figures go down just as if they had found it.

Both parties will doubtless spin these numbers for all they're worth. The bottom line, though, will be the amount of pain the American voter is in come November.  You can't spin bills and debt away, unfortunately.

CNN business correspondent Rick Santelli explains what is wrong with January's statistics here.

HT: Drudge