What to make of the good economic news? Is the lower unemployment rate cause for celebration? And what of the improving productivity figures and shrinking trade deficit? Don't pop the champagne corks, warns Associated Press economics correspondent Jeannine Aversa.

The numbers might just be a mirage masking deeper problems in the US economy.

The drop in the official unemployment comes with more people being forced to take part-time employment and coincides with employers cutting jobs for the fourth month in a row. Similarly, the supposedly improved productivity is the result of people working fewer hours. And the shrinking trade deficit is very much the result of people spending less. What's making them tighten their belts even more is the fall in the US dollar which is making imported goods more expensive.

And the really worrying part is that consumer borrowing and credit card charges are on the increase as people try to make up for the shortfall in their paychecks.