JOBLESS DATA SKEWED

The New York Post ^ | 11/19/03 | Reuters

[Afronaut]

November 19, 2003 -- The U.S. Labor Department, at the urging of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, is working to fix a statistical quirk that causes the government to routinely underestimate the number of newly unemployed Americans each week, a department official said.

[concerned about politics]

Same system we've used forever.
Odd the The U.S. Labor Department (ahem) would want to dissect each and every number now. Could it be they voted for............Al Gore?
Nah, couldn't be political. I mean, why would labor (Socialist Workers Party) groups be putting presser on the administration of a freedom loving and capitaist minded president?

[ClearCase_guy]

More accurate statistics are a good thing. But when they fix the method of gathering these statistics, and the "number of newly unemployed Americans each week" goes up (which is the expected statistical outcome), will the major media outlets remind everyone of the change in methodology, or will they say that Bush's economic policies are a joke?

I'm on pins and needles to see which way it's played out!

[Mr. Bird]

The data's importance has climbed in recent months as concerns about a "jobless recovery" from the 2001 recession threatened to undermine economic growth

The data's "importance" has climbed because the media has fueled concern over a phantom condition. Employment, for as long as they've been tracking it, has been a lagging indicator.

Essentially, the media have looked out the window at sunset and suddenly exclaimed "but what if the sun doesn't rise tomorrow?".

[teletech]

Greenspam suddenly taking an interest in fixing a "problem" in the unemployment stats. Make me go Hmmmmmm.

[concerned about politics]

Greenspam suddenly taking an interest in fixing a "problem" in the unemployment stats. Make me go Hmmmmmm.

Looks like we need another tax break.

[aimhigh]

it has also revised the previous week's number upward,<./i>

One reason for this is that claims are frequently filed in one week and backdated to the prior week.