AP's Wiseman Botches Math to Falsely Claim Past Four Months' Job Adds Are Best in Two Years
It would seem that Paul Wiseman at the Associated Press had his copy prepared in advance for today's jobs report.
The consensus was that today's report from Uncle Sam's Bureau of Labor Statistics would show that 200,000 seasonally adjusted jobs were added in March. So it was a virtual lock that today's result would mean that the past four months were the best for net hiring in the past two years. Accordingly, after the report's release, Wiseman, despite the disappointing news that March's number was only 120,000, apparently just plugged in the four-month total and ran with it:
Unfortunately for Wiseman and AP, today's actual result was so low that it made the related four-month total of 858,000 for December through March lower than the four-month total for November through February:
Oops.
Based on the time stamp on the report above, the error remained for at least 3 hours before being corrected; I think it may have lingered for several more hours elsewhere. Update: Actually, you can still find a copy of Wiseman's earlier version containing the erroneous "best four months of hiring in two years" reference here at Yahoo.
A report by Wiseman time-stamped at 5:51 p.m. no longer contains the error. But its headline ("US job market takes a break after hiring binge") gives away the kind of shameless exercise in administration aggrandizement and excuse-making readers will see if they read on.
I'll deal with that tomorrow.
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Comments
These job numbers are
Submitted by mattm on Fri, 04/06/2012 - 9:14pm.
These job numbers are bull-droppings. If you adjust for a long-term economic cycle, this economy is losing jobs. In the last month in my area (population center of about 2 million) had two well known retailers closing multiple locations.
If B. Hussein was a republican, the media would be talking about the second Great Depression.
As I said
Submitted by bobsmom on Fri, 04/06/2012 - 9:33pm.
on another site, the only increase in "job numbers" here in the Mitten State, is due to the Dairy Queens, and Swirly Cones, reopening for the season. So, libs, don't break out the champagne.
job numbers are constantly revised, adjusted
Submitted by antiObamunist on Fri, 04/06/2012 - 10:34pm.
And basically guessed at week after week just to get the headline and keep the sheep from bleating too loudly.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/initial-claims-continue-string-disappointm...
... and about that "DROP" in the unemployment rate ...
Submitted by Jayke on Sat, 04/07/2012 - 7:00am.
"The unemployment rate drops to 8.2% for one simple reason: the number of people not in the labor force is back to all time highs: 87,897,000"
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/nfp-big-miss-120k-expectations-205k-unempl...
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/LNS15000000
jobs
Submitted by kinijane on Sat, 04/07/2012 - 7:27am.
Wonder what they manipulated this time to get the good numbers. It appears they
have a habit of taking this and that off the rolls to get the numbers of jobless down.
Can't fool the man out of work tho, just the kool-ade drinkers.
Unemployment Smoke and Mirrors
Submitted by berlet98 on Sat, 04/07/2012 - 5:39pm.
Unemployment Smoke and Mirrors
“A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have.” (Thomas Jefferson)
Based on mainstream media reports and liberal pundit commentaries, one would think that America’s economy had turned a corner, that massive numbers of people were getting back to work, that the re-recession was over, that God’s in His heaven and all’s right in Obamaworld.
Much as all Americans would love to believe that rosy picture, it would be as accurate as believing Obama reveres the United States Constitution.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released data on Friday showing that 120,000 jobs opened up in March and that the official unemployment rate declined from 8.3% in February to 8.2% last month, the lowest rate in over three years.
That was the good economic news, deceptively good and the only good news.
In point of fact, those 120,000 jobs represented a 107,000 decrease from February’s numbers and far less than the expected 205,000 and were the fewest jobs added in five months, people are leaving the workforce in droves with a record 88,000,000 now not employed at all, the Institute for Supply Management’s factory index was 53.4 in March, down from a high of 59.9 in January, 2011, and Americans are working fewer hours and earning less money.
If this is a recovery, what’s a recession?
CNBC’s voice of reason, Rick Santelli, . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=20864.)