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Believe it – Employment Numbers Were Ginned

doc, aka Rich Wrote: Oct 15, 2012 12:47 AM

Whenever anyone tells you they've been using the "same method for 60 years" that is beyond belief. They're banking on people being stupid. There's hardly any statistical method that's current yet has been unmodified in 60 years. Methods may be generally similar but modified constantly in small ways. Crime reporting is constantly refined, inflation tabulation increasingly excludes larger and larger categories, I find it exceedingly difficult to believe that BLS methodologies are not constantly refined. Can't we get anyone to really dig into their internal methods of the monthly survey questions as well as their grading methods? Both questions and grading likely evolve, and I'd bet changes went into effect on last months survey.

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Believe it – Employment Numbers Were Ginned

A couple weeks ago, this column analyzed the inflation rate reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and concluded that you should rely on your common sense when the government reports questionable statistics. If they don’t make sense based on what you see, experience, and hear from your friends, then they’re probably wrong. Last week’s unemployment number – which decreased to a still-dismal 7.8% – should not only make no sense to you, but should have never made sense to the BLS and therefore should never have been issued.

So am I just popping off or is there...

Related Tags: Unemployment Lies Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment rates