Politico: Trump's 'blowout' jobs number looks like fuzzy math
President Donald Trump caused widespread bewilderment on Friday by tweeting that the Labor Department’s October employment report showed the economy added 303,000 jobs — when the actual number was 128,000.
“Wow, a blowout JOBS number just out, adjusted for revisions and the General Motors strike, 303,000,” wrote the president, who has made job creation the center of his reelection pitch to voters. “This is far greater than expectations. USA ROCKS!”
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First, they started with the 128,000 net jobs for October — a solid figure that beat expectations. Then, the Labor Department revised up previous reports for August and September by 95,000 jobs, so the White House included that. Meanwhile, Trump's economists added another 60,000 jobs that they said were lost, directly and indirectly, due to the strike by General Motors workers during the survey period.
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“The statement makes little sense and is not tethered to any empirical reality,” said Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM. “Once one takes into account the 95,000 in revisions to the months of August and September, one can plausibly make the claim that there was an increase of 223,000 in total employment implied” in today’s report.
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/01/trump-october-unemployment-numbers-063870
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