Don't be so positively negative!

Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style recommends to “put statements in positive form” because negative statements cause the reader to be “dissatisfied with being told only what is not; the reader wishes to be told what is” (20).
The authors exemplify their thesis with the words dishonest (positive form=not using the negating not) versus not honest (negative form). Dishonest is indeed much stronger, but is it necessarily the same as not honest? According to The American Heritage Dictionary, to be dishonest means to be “disposed to lie, cheat, defraud, or deceive,” thus indicating a particular characteristic. “She is dishonest” is, therefore, a strongly disapproving statement about a person’s character while “She is not honest” sounds less definite and leaves room for the possibility of her having an honest moment once in a while. Sometimes a negating not in front of an adjective may be the kinder choice.
Some opinion makers are well aware of this and favor telling us what is not. They rather talk about "the currently not employed" than about "the unemployed," maybe because the reader or listener notices the positive word employed but lets pass the tiny preceding not. Since, according to Strunk/White, "as a rule, it is better to express even a negative in positive form," they may even opt for talking about "the potentially employable Americans,” or "the fully hirable.” Now that sounds positive, doesn’t it? So, how about simply being a little bit more positive as a rule?

WASHINGTON—In what is being touted by the Labor Department as extremely positive news, the nation's available labor rate has reached double digits for the first time in 26 years, bringing the total number of potentially employable Americans to an impressive 15.7 million.
"This is such an exciting time to be an employer in America," said Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, adding that every single day 6,500 more citizens join America's growing possible workforce. "There's such a massive and diverse pool of job-ready Americans to choose from. And each month the number only gets higher."
"While our current available labor rate of 10.2 percent isn't quite as robust as it was in 1982 or 1933, we're happy to say that reaching that benchmark is no longer out of the realm of possibility," Solis continued.
According to the Department of Labor's report, nearly 200,000 more Americans suddenly became fully hirable in October alone. And November saw unprecedented gains in the number of high-quality auto workers, teachers, lawyers, part-time retailers, and even doctors who could be employed.
The report also explained that, because of the booming would-be-employee market, college graduates are having an easier time than ever joining the ranks of those ready and able to receive monetary compensation for work performed at some point...

The entire Onion article is a blast and well worth reading, and so is Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, one of the best writing manuals out there - and it is cheap!