

Why you can't trust those jobs figures - j_baker
http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/08/jobs-unemployment-layoffs-business-washington-figures.html

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russell
It's a short but decent discussion of why unemployment figures dont reflect
the real unemployment rate. It mentioned discouraged workers, who are not
counted because they stopped looking. Also the underemployed are not counted.
If you find 10 hours a week sweeping out a church, you are employed, even if
you really are an unemployed corporate lawyer. Unemployment figures will tend
to lag the recovery because formerly discouraged workers will start looking
again and be counted again.

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dkarl
It's the same as accounting. If people are allowed discretion to use their
judgment to pick the most accurate reporting methods for each time and
situation, or the statistics that best reflect reality, then inevitably you
end up with nothing but lies. If you standardize reporting, then sometimes you
end up reporting meaningless numbers, but everyone is in the same boat, and
there's less long-term distortion (as long as the people who wrote the
standard have an interest in accurate information.)

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socillion
"it’s not about to rebound, as many stock investors apparently assume." WHAT?
You tell me that after I bought the bridge and Ford shares?

"Williams is a bit of renegade among economists, and certainly no household
name." Good for him. If everyone stayed in the herd, we wouldn't have anyone
left after the stampede off the cliff.

