to be revised right after the election... feh
Posted on 10/30/2012 6:25:10 PM PDT by markomalley
Sandy did hit D.C. but only with a glancing blow, so the prospect of BLS statisticians being stranded at home in the suburbs has faded along with the storm. Even if they were getting hammered, though, if you worked for BLS, wouldn’t you move heaven and earth to make sure this report came out according to its regular schedule? If they delayed what turned out to be a bad report and Obama won the election in the interim, they’d have half the country suspicious of their motives unto eternity. As would also be the case, needless to say, if the incumbent were a Republican and staring down the barrel of a jobless rate stuck near eight percent.
A Labor Department official tells CBS News correspondent Bob Fuss there should be no delay in the release of the monthly employment report. It’s expected to be released this Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET…
There had been some speculation the report would be delayed as a result of Superstorm Sandy. Preparation for the jobs report typically ramps up in the week of the release. The federal government was closed Monday and Tuesday due to the storm.
On Monday the Labor Department had issued a statement saying, “It is our intention that Friday will be business as usual regarding the October Employment Situation report.”
ABC and Bloomberg were hearing the same thing earlier this afternoon, with former Obama advisor Austan Goolsbee telling the latter that he expected BLS would crunch the numbers at their satellite offices outside D.C. if need be rather than delay the report. Bloomberg makes a fair point in arguing separately that it’s silly for people to put so much stock in a measurement that tells us so little about what’s really going on in the economy (a point HA readers understand only too well), but there are lots of silly things that affect people’s votes and most of them are far sillier than this. Rest assured, The One was careful to affect his most serious “serious face” while being briefed on Sandy for the benefit of the White House photographer snapping pictures in the Situation Room. Looking “presidential” in a crisis can tip votes, and that’s how you look presidential. Little late in the game now to be grumbling about the merits of the BLS numbers.
Mickey Kaus makes a fair point too. If this was all a matter of the White House and the BLS playing with the numbers to help O out, there’s obviously something more potent they could (but won’t) do than simply shelving the final jobs report:
I’m assuming the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the October employment statistics on schedule. The paranoia that would accompany a delay (this close to the election) would be too destructive, even if the delay was justifiable. But if the Obama administration were really playing politics with the numbers in the way the paranoids fear, do you think it would merely delay the release of the numbers? Not cunning enough!
The obvious Machiavellian four-step would be 1) delay the release of the numbers 2) wait for the Romney camp to get caught up in the paranoia and publicly demand that the administration release the numbers 3) at the moment of maximum dramatic tension, release the numbers! 4) Have the numbers be unexpectedly good. … There is precedent for this maneuver. …
Exit question: How far would the current rate of 7.8 percent have to move on Friday to really impact the election? My sense of low-information voters is that they’re almost entirely tuned out to the actual numbers, and may even be tuned out to good/bad trends in the numbers unless the trend is sharp enough to lend an air of celebration or dread, as the case may be, to news stories about it. That’s what they’re reacting to I think — the tone of the coverage as a portent of how the economy more broadly is doing, not the actual facts being reported about the data. My question is, what sort of movement in Friday’s would cause the media to celebrate/despair? A one-tenth percent drop or increase? Two-tenths? And yes, it’s perfectly fine to wonder if the bar for grim reports has risen now that we’re on the eve of an election.
Isn’t that surprising. Freshly cooked? I wonder how they managed to slant the data this time.
Yep, in Obama’s favor no doubt.
No other possible explanation.
7.6%
“The economy continued its strong recovery under the leadership of President Obama as Republicans attempted to downplay the irrefutable evidence leading into election week”
Translation:
On second thought, we thought the numbers were going to be really, really bad, but we think we can massage them to look good for Obama just before the election weekend.
Yep.
Last month’s “drop” in unemployment numbers was because California didn’t report on time.
This month NJ, DE, PA, MD and NY won’t report on time.
Or else.
Friday’s number will be 5.4%
They saved up all those new jobs and kept them in a lock box.
47% of voters will believe it.
And Romney will win.
Don't be silly. With several states not reporting, several more with unemployment offices impacted by the storm, I'd be astonished if the "official" number is much higher than 6.7%
The correction won't happen until well after the election, and the much higher number won't even be mentioned by the MSM unless Mitt wins, and then only to blame him.
At some point even the dimmest figure out that once half gallon tub of ice cream is now only a 1.5 quarts — just in a similar carton. Same goes w/ the unemployment #s. They can only be cooked so much before people recognize that the number keeps going down, yet none of their unemployed friends or family have found work or appropriate work to their education & that their own wage/salary is flat.
So if BLS wants to “help” Obama and release a fantastic, but unrealistic report again, let them. Only Obamatons believe everything in Obama’s press releases, and there are fewer and fewer of those daily.
I wouldnt be surprised if it became 2 percent..the media will hail Obama as the messiah once again..the unemployment numbers are all a bunch of cooked nonsense anyway only morons would believe it and those morons vote for Obama anyway
to be revised right after the election... feh
Let me guess, 5.4% and they’ll adjust it up to 8.3% after the election.
Guess that means more data manipulation in Obama’s favor.
Unemployment will magically be 5% because people in 21 states hit by storm aren’t counted as “looking for work”.....
I think the lefties at BLS are feverishly trying to get it out because it will look Good on Obama. Bryar patch and all that, we had been set up. It would have to be anohter, say, 0.2 or 0.3 drop for the media to be able to say its a miraculous recovery, still not sure what effect that would have. I think the coverage of Obama and the Storm will have more effect really.
“Isn’t that surprising. Freshly cooked? I wonder how they managed to slant the data this time.”
It’ll be like 1983 all over again. A boom! Nevermind the data-fog of the following week’s revisions will be lost to whatever the election results are.
I just hate people toying with the information coming out of the government we pay for. Far too many are career liars!
Most obamatons don’t believe they’re own voices. You can tell they’re doing all they can to be convincing.
Don’t they have to show the 30,000 unemployed that WERE NOT reported by California last week that was the cause of the drop to 7.8%.
Ooops, we lied last week, move along sheeple.
If Romney wins the unemployment rate will be 20% Jan 22 ......
That’s funny. I was just thinking earlier today, about that dynamic.
At one minute after being sworn in, Obama will be absolved of any responsibility for any of the negative indicators Romney inherits. It will all be Romney’s fault.
Watch the homeless become an instant concern.
The interesting thing is, Romney isn’t the type to blame others. He’s going to strive to fix things, and take that responsibility upon himself from the get-go.
I’m not a big Romney fan, but the difference between the two men is startling. I don’t see how Obama achieved anything in his life. He just doesn’t have it in him.
I wouldn’t be surprised to learn his whole life has been a complete fraud, including his education.
None of the people who took classes he was supposed to be in, ever saw him in those classes. At least that’s what I’ve heard a few times.
It will be interesting to see what we find out about this guy in the future. Hopefully, it will be such a scandal that folks will never fall for something like this again.
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