Gosselin on the economy

Even when GDP growth exceeded 5 percent, the LAT's economics reporter Peter Gosselin never wrote about it. When unemployment declined to 4.4 percent, Gosselin never wrote about it. But yesterday the Labor Department reported that unemployment climbed to 5 percent in December -- and Gosselin wrote about it and said it was a signal of a recession. Understandably, newspapers don't report routine events, but a record low unemployment rate or outstanding GDP growth is as much news as a .3 percent increase in the unemployment rate. Incidentally, a 5 percent unemployment rate is far from high -- 6 percent was long considered full employment.