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How the Labor Dept. Keeps Its Economic Data Politics-Free
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How the Labor Dept. Keeps Its Economic Data Politics-Free
By PATRICIA COHEN NOV. 3, 2016
Talk about an October surprise. The post on Twitter warning of a government conspiracy to swing the presidential election in the Democrats’ favor popped up just moments after the Labor Department reported the biggest monthly decline in the unemployment rate in nine years.
“Unbelievable jobs numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything,” it said, referring to the Obama administration’s crew. “Can’t debate so change numbers.”
The author of the Oct. 5 post was not Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee and irrepressible Twitter user. It was Jack Welch, the legendary retired chief executive of General Electric, reacting to good economic news in the weeks running up to the 2012 face-off between President Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney.
....
For starters, the people who generate the numbers are all career civil servants who have churned out reports for both Republicans and Democrats. And their basic methods do not swerve from one administration to the next. If the figures are biased, they are consistently biased in the same way regardless of what party is in office.
By PATRICIA COHEN NOV. 3, 2016
Talk about an October surprise. The post on Twitter warning of a government conspiracy to swing the presidential election in the Democrats’ favor popped up just moments after the Labor Department reported the biggest monthly decline in the unemployment rate in nine years.
“Unbelievable jobs numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything,” it said, referring to the Obama administration’s crew. “Can’t debate so change numbers.”
The author of the Oct. 5 post was not Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee and irrepressible Twitter user. It was Jack Welch, the legendary retired chief executive of General Electric, reacting to good economic news in the weeks running up to the 2012 face-off between President Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney.
....
For starters, the people who generate the numbers are all career civil servants who have churned out reports for both Republicans and Democrats. And their basic methods do not swerve from one administration to the next. If the figures are biased, they are consistently biased in the same way regardless of what party is in office.