Jobs Reports to Be Taken With Grain of Salt

wealthcycles.com / By The WealthCycles Staff / December 28, 2012

On the first Friday of every month, the Bureau Of Labor Statistics (BLS) issues the Jobs Report. This report oftentimes is a predictor and influencer of future economic reports. For this and many other reasons, the rhetoric surrounding these reports is filled with political posturing. To cut through the hot air to the true picture, it’s important to understand what the Jobs Reports say… and don’t say.

With billions of dollars riding on one report, it is small wonder that every politician in Washington is determined to make the job numbers work in his or her favor, particularly during election cycles when accusations of conspiracy abound. The question then becomes, how is it possible that the same numbers can be used to support dramatically different perspectives. For example, how is it that the November Jobs Report elicited such contradictory responses as these:

There are so many numbers factored into the calculation of the unemployment rate that it is easy to see how the numbers could be manipulated. In fact, there is really no single unemployment rate, but rather a series of numbers that all reflect one or more pieces of the unemployment picture.

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