The Statistics Just Lie -- And So Does The Media

Here are the two key bits of info from this morning's employment report.  (1) In May, there were roughly 21,000 fewer jobs in the American economy than there were in April.  (2) The unemployment rate declined from 5.0% to 4.7%.  It doesn't take a genius to understand that both of these statistics cannot be correct.  You cannot have fewer jobs but lower unemployment except in one situation:  there would have to be a major drop in the participation rate, that is the number of people working or looking for work.  But, according to the government, that major drop in participation did not happen.  Simply put, these statistics are crap.

So how did the pundits react?  The first comment I heard came from the business reporter on CBS who couldn't believe that in such "good" times, the number of jobs created was so low.  He went on to explain that other data showed that the economy is "strong".  In short, he was in total denial.  The main measure of the entire economy is the GDP, and that has been barely growing at all for six months.  Corporate profits (which show the health of businesses) have been slipping for over a year. 

It would be nice to think that we could get a non-political, non-biased report on the meaning of these statistics, if, in fact, they have any real meaning.  Sadly, with the media today, we just never get the facts and just the facts.