Free Republic

It’s not every day you see you see the chairman and CEO of the Gallup polling organization come out and declare the official unemployment rate number is extremely misleading, or, as the headline suggests, “a big lie”: ... There’s another reason why the official rate is misleading. Say you’re an out-of-work engineer or healthcare worker or construction worker or retail manager: If you perform a minimum of one hour of work in a week and are paid at least $20 — maybe someone pays you to mow their lawn — you’re not officially counted as unemployed in the much-reported 5.6%....

Gallup CEO Jim Clifton denounced the White House and the news media on Tuesday for wildly misinforming the public on the current unemployment numbers. According to the report, Obama's overtly dishonest and partisan Labor Department has once again published "extremely misleading" figures that deliberately misrepresent the nation's unemployment rate as significantly better off than they are...

We at IBD often get lambasted for our gloomy take on the monthly jobs data that emerge from the government. After all, if the government puts it out, it can't be inaccurate, can it? And it must be honest, right? Well, we're not alone in casting aspersions on the dicey employment numbers.

Here's something that many Americans -- including some of the smartest and most educated among us -- don't know: The official unemployment rate, as reported by the U.S. Department of Labor, is extremely misleading. Right now, we're hearing much celebrating from the media, the White House and Wall Street about how unemployment is "down" to 5.6%. The cheerleading for this number is deafening. The media loves a comeback story, the White House wants to score political points and Wall Street would like you to stay in the market. None of them will tell you this: If you, a family member...

The biggest threat to a corrupt regime is when truth moves away from the "conspiracy theory" fringes and into the mainstream. Which is why we thank Jim Clifton, Chairman and CEO of Gallup, for daring to tell the truth to those who care to listen.Posted first on LinkedInThe Big Lie: 5.6% UnemploymentHere’s something that many Americans -- including some of the smartest and most educated among us -- don’t know: The official unemployment rate, as reported by the U.S. Department of Labor, is extremely misleading.Right now, we’re hearing much celebrating from the media, the White House and Wall Street...

Here’s something that many Americans -- including some of the smartest and most educated among us -- don’t know: The official unemployment rate, as reported by the U.S. Department of Labor, is extremely misleading. Right now, we’re hearing much celebrating from the media, the White House and Wall Street about how unemployment is “down” to 5.6%. The cheerleading for this number is deafening. The media loves a comeback story, the White House wants to score political points and Wall Street would like you to stay in the market. None of them will tell you this: If you, a family member...

A series of national surveys conducted periodically by Gallup since the 1970s indicate that Americans have consistently rated the honesty and ethical standards of police officers higher than local officeholders, state officeholders, governors, and members of Congress. In fact, according to historical data Gallup has posted online, in none of these surveys has any group of elected officeholders ever been rated higher than police officers for their honesty and ethical standards. …

Millennials are increasingly more pro-life and supportive of restrictions on abortion than their parents' generation, according to polling data taken over the last decade, and pro-life leader credit medical technology for this growing trend. Lila Rose, president of the pro-life group Live Action, told The Christian Post in a recent interview that advances in ultrasound technology is just one of the many reasons why teenagers and people in their 20s are joining the movement. "There's a window into the womb with ultrasound. Just having the look into the womb you can see, even in the first trimester, the early development...

PRINCETON, N.J. -- President Barack Obama's job approval rating in 2014 among white 18- to 29-year-olds is 34%, three points higher than among whites aged 30 and older. This is the narrowest approval gap between the president's previously strong support base of white millennials and older white Americans since Obama took office.

Following the midterm election, more Americans identify/lean Republican than Democratic, says Gallup Editor-in-Chief Frank Newport

In a dozen polls taken from 1982 to 2014, Gallup has asked Americans to choose among three views of evolution. One view is that humans “developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided this process.” Another view is that humans “developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God had no part in this process.” The third option is that “God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so.” In that three-decade span, the young-Earth creationist option has always...

A new Gallup poll finds that President Barack Obama´s approval rating with working-class white Americans has fallen to just 27 percent, a record-low for his presidency. Among whites who´ve graduated college, Obama´s approval stands at 41%, also a new low in the Gallup poll. (Graph) Perhaps most troubling of all for Obama: Gallup´s data only extended to the end of October, well before the recent racially-charged riots broke out in Ferguson, Missouri, and protests across the country. "About two-thirds of adult whites have not graduated from college, making working-class whites a particularly important group politically because of its sheer size,"

Just after President Barack Obama was reelected in 2012, the health care reform law which bears his name as its sobriquet was, according to Gallup, at least somewhat popular. GallupÂ’s findings in November, 2012, bucked a trend wherein the majority of pollsters determined that the law was still unpopular. The Real Clear Politics average of polls in this month found the Affordable Care Act was underwater by 5.4 points, but GallupÂ’s results showed the ACA rebounding to 3 points above water with 48 percent approving of the law and only 45 percent disapproving. That popularity boost did not last...

As the Affordable Care Act's second open enrollment period begins, 37% of Americans say they approve of the law, one percentage point below the previous low in January. Fifty-six percent disapprove, the high in disapproval by one point. [Snip] Approval of the law continues to diverge sharply by party, with 74% of Democrats and 8% of Republicans approving of it. Independents have never been particularly positive toward the law, with approval ranging between 31% and 41%. Currently, 33% of independents approve.

Sixty-three percent of Americans questioned in a Gallup survey conducted in October and released this month said they believe having a gun in their house makes it a safer place to be. “A record-high percentage in U.S. say guns makes homes safer,” said Gallup in its analysis of the survey. The organization has polled on this issue in five surveys going back to 1993 (although the question in the 1993 survey was somewhat different than in later surveys). Gallup also reported on how eleven different demographic groups responded to the question. Among all of these except one—Democrats—a majority said this...

Andrew DuganNovember 12, 2014 WASHINGTON, D.C. -- After the midterm elections that saw the Democratic Party suffer significant losses in Congress, a record-low 36% of Americans say they have a favorable opinion of the party, down six percentage points from before the elections. The Republican Party's favorable rating, at 42%, is essentially unchanged from 40%. This marks the first time since September 2011 that the Republican Party has had a higher favorability rating than the Democratic Party. Republican and Democratic Party Favorables, 1992-2014 These results come from a Nov. 6-9 Gallup poll, conducted after Republicans enjoyed a breathtaking sweep of...

John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, as well Valerie Jarrett and Barack Obama, should take heed. By a commanding 17 point margin, Americans want Congress to take the lead, according to a new Gallup Poll (hat tip: Bloomberg and Instapundit): Following the midterm election that some have termed a Republican wave, the majority of Americans want the Republicans in Congress -- rather than President Barack Obama -- to have more influence over the direction the country takes in the coming year. This is a switch from early 2012 when a slim plurality, 46%, wanted Obama to prevail in steering the nation....

Less than half of Americans, 47%, say they favor stricter laws covering the sale of firearms, similar to views found last year. But this percentage is significantly below the 58% recorded in 2012 after the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, spurred a nationwide debate about the possibility of more stringent gun control laws. Thirty-eight percent of Americans say these laws should be kept as they are now, and 14% say they should be made less strict.

As the quarantine period ends for people exposed to the first person in the U.S. to be diagnosed with Ebola, the virus for the first time ranks among the top 10 issues Americans consider to be the most important ones facing the country. However, Ebola still ranks behind five other issues, including the economy (17%), dissatisfaction with government (16%) and unemployment (10%), and ties several others.These results come from an Oct. 12-15 Gallup poll, conducted while dozens of people in the U.S. were still being quarantined after coming in contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, who died earlier this month from...

The world's 7 billion citizens get most of their news from reporters and experts -- it's edited and filtered by how these professionals see events. Gallup applauds the work they do. But the one missing element from most reporting and analyses are the opinions, thoughts, and feelings of those 7 billion citizens themselves -- how they see events. This week we are relaunching our e-newspaper, Gallup.com, to broaden and deepen our coverage of the opinions, thoughts, and well-being of citizens around the world -- the will of the people. So while the news media continues to cover events from the...