News
Market Watch | The downside of an older workforce
Encore: Workers 55 and up now make up a bigger part of the employed population -- a trend some pros say could hurt economic growth.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | Why Jobs Surveys Don't Always Tell the Same Story
Employers added a relatively modest 114,000 jobs in September, but the unemployment rate registered its biggest drop in nearly two years. What explains the disparity?
Real Clear Markets | Fake Jobs Numbers Would Look Better Than This
When the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on Friday that the unemployment rate had fallen to 7.8% in September, some observers wondered if the numbers had been "cooked" for political purposes. They can relax. Fake jobs numbers wouldn't look as bad as these.
WSJ | Happy Days Are Not Here Again
The jobless rate fell in September to 7.8% from 8.1%, though the economy created only 114,000 new jobs, and some of our conservative friends smell a bureaucratic rat so close to Election Day. We doubt the Labor gnomes are manipulating the numbers, and in any case chasing conspiracies detracts from the real news, which is that the job market still stinks.
Fortune | Why the unemployment rate won't keep dropping
It was either an average month for job growth, or one of the best months in nearly three decades. In the September jobs numbers, there was evidence for both.
Blogs
WSJ | Flowing Through the Labor Market
The following charts examine how the patterns of flows have changed over the past 22 years. The unemployed are remaining so longer, while they are now more likely to drop out of the labor force than to find a job.
Library of Economics | BLS Data
The Bureau of Labor Statistics had not finished releasing the surprisingly good September data that a number of commentators started raising doubts about the truthfulness of the data. There is no doubt that the data were a boost to President Obama, a boost coming at a difficult moment, when the President's lead is faltering. Yet, is this motive sufficient to convict?
WSJ | Impossible to Manipulate Labor Survey Data — Former BLS Head
Even if the U.S. government wanted to manipulate monthly jobs figures, it would be impossible to accomplish, said a former head of the U.S. government’s labor statistics agency.
Political Calculations | Teens Stuck in the Basement
The big news with the September 2012 employment situation report is that it added 873,000 people to the count of the number of employed individuals in the U.S. thanks to an unexpected adjustment in the BLS' monthly count.
Library of Economics | The Latest Unemployment Figures
Our new co-blogger, Luigi Zingales, in his first post, has done an excellent job of dispelling the conspiracy theory that political operatives in the Obama administration "got to" the professionals in the Bureau of Labor Statistics who gather and report unemployment data. By the way, welcome, Luigi.
WSJ | Part-Time Work Can’t Support Full-Time Spending
As usual, Friday’s employment report came with some unexpected twists.
Political Calculations | Is Unemployment Set to Explode?
Now that the average price of gasoline in the United States is clocking in at all-time record levels for this time of year, especially in California, what effect will that factor have upon the official U.S. unemployment rate, which just clocked in at its lowest level since early 2009?
WSJ | More People Over 65 Are Still Working
U.S. labor market participation rates have been running at 30-year lows, but for one group — 65 years old and over — participation in the labor force continues to ramp up.
AEI | Why Gallup’s chief economist says the big drop in the unemployment rate ‘should be discounted’
You can count pollster Gallup as another observer questioning Friday’s job report, in particular the big drop in the unemployment rate. In a blog post, Dennis Jacobe, Gallup’s chief economist, writes that he seriously doubts whether the economy created nearly 900,000 jobs in September, as measured by the Labor Department’s seasonally adjusted household survey.
