Post by unlawflcombatnt on Jun 4, 2007 16:16:47 GMT -6
Mike Shedlock has posted an excellent commentary on the government's use of the business birth/death model to concoct higher employment numbers than can be seen from actual recorded numbers. Shedlock describes this in his article titled Construction Jobs Puzzle. Below are excerpts from Shedlock's article.
"Once again we have another totally unbelievable jobs report. This makes two in a row....
U.S. nonfarm payrolls increased by a better-than-expected 157,000 in May, the Labor Department reported Friday....
Goods-producing industries lost 19,000 jobs. Construction employment was flat, a continued puzzle to economists who have been expecting declines in the sector that have yet to materialize.
Manufacturing firms cut 19,000 jobs, with over half of the lost jobs coming from the motor vehicle sector. Many economists had expected an improved factory job report in May given the recent upturn in manufacturing data.
Service-providing industries added 176,000 jobs, including 54,000 in education and health services and 32,000 in professional and business services. Retail lost 5,000 jobs.
Government added 22,000 jobs in May.
Construction employment was flat, a continued puzzle to economists.....
The puzzle is not whether construction jobs were lost (most assuredly they were), the puzzle is in a birth/death model that has added 89,000 construction jobs over the last two months (at a time when housing starts are declining at a 15.7% annualized rate). Wow! But that is not the only birth/death puzzle. The last two months have seen a grand total of 520,000 jobs assumed to have been created by the BLS's model....."
Below is a copy of the latest business birth/death concoction.
Meanwhile, GDP grew only +0.6% during the last quarter. Despite the obvious economic slowdown, the business birth/death model is adding jobs at the fastest rate ever. Shedlock comments further on the birth/death concoction:
"The BLS has not released details of how their model works. Shouldn't that come under the Freedom of Information Act? Or is the birth/death model a top secret security risk? How does the BLS get away with this nonsense and why does anyone believe these jobs reports? That's the biggest puzzle of all."
So the BLS adds jobs to the monthly total, without any public explanation of how that addition takes place. Sounds completely typical of the Bush plutocracy. When documented facts don't suit their aims, they simply create new facts to take their place.
"Once again we have another totally unbelievable jobs report. This makes two in a row....
U.S. nonfarm payrolls increased by a better-than-expected 157,000 in May, the Labor Department reported Friday....
Goods-producing industries lost 19,000 jobs. Construction employment was flat, a continued puzzle to economists who have been expecting declines in the sector that have yet to materialize.
Manufacturing firms cut 19,000 jobs, with over half of the lost jobs coming from the motor vehicle sector. Many economists had expected an improved factory job report in May given the recent upturn in manufacturing data.
Service-providing industries added 176,000 jobs, including 54,000 in education and health services and 32,000 in professional and business services. Retail lost 5,000 jobs.
Government added 22,000 jobs in May.
Construction employment was flat, a continued puzzle to economists.....
The puzzle is not whether construction jobs were lost (most assuredly they were), the puzzle is in a birth/death model that has added 89,000 construction jobs over the last two months (at a time when housing starts are declining at a 15.7% annualized rate). Wow! But that is not the only birth/death puzzle. The last two months have seen a grand total of 520,000 jobs assumed to have been created by the BLS's model....."
Below is a copy of the latest business birth/death concoction.
Meanwhile, GDP grew only +0.6% during the last quarter. Despite the obvious economic slowdown, the business birth/death model is adding jobs at the fastest rate ever. Shedlock comments further on the birth/death concoction:
"The BLS has not released details of how their model works. Shouldn't that come under the Freedom of Information Act? Or is the birth/death model a top secret security risk? How does the BLS get away with this nonsense and why does anyone believe these jobs reports? That's the biggest puzzle of all."
So the BLS adds jobs to the monthly total, without any public explanation of how that addition takes place. Sounds completely typical of the Bush plutocracy. When documented facts don't suit their aims, they simply create new facts to take their place.