USA Today (October 15)
When the U.S. unemployment rate fell from 8.1% to 7.8%, some alleged conspiracy. Former GE CEO Jack Welch suggested the numbers had been manipulated to improve Obama’s reelection odds. These suggestions are frankly “a little nuts.” Eventually Welch “admitted he had no evidence that anyone was manipulating the jobs numbers, or that the respected numbers crunchers at the Bureau of Labor Statistics and other agencies were engaged in a plot that would be cause for terminating their professional careers.” Calculating the unemployment rate is not an exact science. The initial numbers often go up and down more than expected, but they get subsequently revised twice. Welch’s suggestion is among the “dumbest and most irresponsible things said by people who ought to know better.”
Tags: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Conspiracy, Dumb, GE, Jack Welch, U.S., Unemployment
