As a rule, all accusations of government economic data manipulation made in a political setting are without basis. Discussions of the CPI, or manipulated unemployment numbers, or Federal Reserve Bank data are politically motivated and have never panned out (and are never followed up on as time goes on).
In September 2013, the BLS will begin to incorporate a large non-economic code change and "artificially" increase employment. Specifically, 469,000 people currently employed in private households (such as housekeepers and gardeners) will begin to be included as employees. This change will be "wedged" back into past estimates come the February 2014 report of January 2014 employment data.
This is an improvement in data, but it is an artificial inflation of job numbers compared to past history. No doubt it will be used by some to hyperbolically account for the 7 million job increase over the last 3 and a half years, but this will be in error.
Monday, November 4, 2013
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