11/28/13 Fabricating Jobs

In 2012, only Behind the Headlines repeatedly warned that Bureau of Labor Statistics jobless reports didn’t pass the smell test.

In January, more than one and a quarter-million people were removed from unemployment calculations.  They simply vanished.  BLS called it a correction.  [It drove down the unemployment rate from 8.5% to 8.3%].

That August, Gallup released its monthly unemployment report based on interviews of 30,000 adults.  The data showed a steep increase in the  jobless rate.

Gallup implied that if the unemployment rate announced by BLS didn’t reflect a “substantial” increase then someone was manipulating the numbers.  

Five days later Attorney-General Eric Holder’s Justice Department joined a three-year old private lawsuit against Gallup.  Intimidation threats.

Then the seemingly impossible happened.  In September BLS reported a dramatic drop in unemployment from 8.1 to 7.8%.  And it reported the second biggest jobs gain in U.S. history: 873,000 jobs. Following job losses of 314,000 the previous two months.  This appears statistically impossible.

In October, BLS reported weekly jobless claims had fallen to 339,000, the lowest level since February 2008.  Another unbelievable claim.

We now know a lot more.  

The October 2012 jobless numbers from California — the most populous state — were completely backwards.  Instead of a five year low, jobless claims spiked to the highest level in months.

The official in charge of the California numbers was a maxed-out donor to the Obama campaign.

And two BLS economists were also Obama donors.

Now, a whistle-blower reports the Census Bureau — which provides the raw unemployment numbers to BLS economists — was cooking the books in the run-up to Obama’s reelection.

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