Thread: Jobs Report - Any Guesses?

Originally Posted by James48843

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sniff, sniff. what is that smell? politicks?

Officials reject conspiracies on unemployment rate

By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER and SCOTT MAYEROWITZ | Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — When conspiracists suggested Friday that the Obama administration had engineered a sharp drop in unemployment to aid President Barack Obama's re-election, the response was swift.
Career government officials, economists and even some Mitt Romney supporters issued a collective sigh.

The staffers who compute the U.S. unemployment rate work in an agency of the Labor Department. Officials who have overseen the work say it's prepared under tight security with no White House input or supervision.
"To think that these numbers could be manipulated. ... It's impossible to do it and get away with it," said Keith Hall, a former commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the agency that calculates the unemployment rate.
"These numbers are very trustworthy," said Hall, who was appointed by President George W. Bush and whose four-year term ended in January.

Those conspiracy theory folks who say good federal workers would intentionally "cook the books " on jobs numbers certainly diminish the ethical standards of us federal workers. Such talk is the same as calling federal employees "liars". I take great offense at that.

No, we would not do that.
Officials reject conspiracies on unemployment rate - Yahoo! News

Unemployment benefits were changed/extended multiple times over the past few years, were they not? Would probably have been a smart move to make most of those extensions expire right before the election since it would lower the unemployment 'number'. It would have been campaign suicide to do the opposite, and extend/relax requirements through the election... which seems completely backwards haha.

Originally Posted by burrocrat

sniff, sniff. what is that smell? politicks?

Burrocrat, I like your signature.

Folks,

If the best unemployment rate attained as President is 7.8% you are still firmly planted in President Jimmy Carter territory.

Folks, 7.8% is sad.

Carter II sad

Just sad

Brag?

Campaigning on Friday, Mr. Obama touted the latest jobs report and repeated his refrain that the economy has created five million jobs during this recovery. What he didn't say is that in a normal recovery we would have nearly twice that number. Mr. Obama claims to be a tribune of the middle class, but he's presided over the worst economy for average workers since my enemy yellow back Jimmy Carter.