[FoxV]

So the US governement reported good job growth numbers, and more evidence about how great the us economy is
Link

So, I understand how they've fudged inflation so that inflation appears "under control" by using a sliding scale.

I understand how they fudge productivity to show rising productivity by including "intangible" assets

What I don't understand is the tricks they use for showing job growth

[SchroedingersCat]

They don't need number tricks. They just don't tell the whole story.

243,000 jobs created. Sounds great! Of course, 198,000 of those are in the service sector. Someone went from a nice manufacturing job to flipping burgers. This is not good. It takes money out of their pocket and therefore out of the economy. Plus, they probably lost their healthcare benefits. More likely not to see a doctor until it's too late and then they end up in an emergency room and the hospital passes the cost of their care on to the rest of us. And of course, many people in minimum wage service jobs need two or three jobs to make ends meet.

7.2 million people were unemployed last month. This does not include those whose unemployment has run out and have quit looking for work. Those people looking for work spent an average of 17.6 weeks to find one?!? Care to be unemployed for 4-1/2 months before you finally pick up a couple of minimum wage service sector jobs?

We need about 30 times this amount of job growth just to take care of those the government calls unemployed.

[basketballjones]

the BLS don't actually measure the number of jobs created, but instead use models to come up with a number 'they think have been created'. so the number is meaningless.

I found out recently (via FSN) that oil inventories are done in exactly the same way. Noone goes out and actually measures the amount of oil and the like in reserve, but models estimate the amount of reserves 'they think they have'.

it's all just nonsense. the gdp numbers, the debt numbers, inflation, and interest rates are all fudged, guessed or managed in one way or another.

[pogoliamo]

Job Disinformation From The New York Times

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')How can the economy possibly be at full employment if the economy is 7 million jobs short of keeping up with population growth!

The unemployment rate does not measure the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs to offshore outsourcing and to foreign workers brought into the US on work visas. These millions of Americans have exhausted their unemployment benefits and severance benefits and have been unable to find jobs to return to the work force. Economists refer to these millions of unemployed people as discouraged workers who have dropped out of the work force. As they have given up searching for jobs, they are not considered to be in the work force and, therefore, do not count as unemployed.

[AmericanEmpire]

I can't wait to see how the goverment spins the unemployment numbers when peak oil sets in good and hard. I'm sure the lies will be fascinating.

[Kingcoal]

Actually, I've noticed that there seems to be be a lot more jobs in the software field. Friends who have had to switch jobs have had no problem finding new jobs. That wasn't the case a couple of years ago.

[Trendsman]

The job numbers are fudged like everything else is today.

[IslandCrow]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Trendsman', 'T')he job numbers are fudged like everything else is today.

[basil_hayden]

Seems obvious to me that many jobs were lost due to last years hurricanes, followed by this years rebuilding efforts.

Unemployment go up, unemplyoment go down.

When unemployment stagnates a year or two from now, we'll know all the slack has been taken up again.