"While I don't agree with the firing, the issue is not the poor July numbers. It is the large restatements for May & June. Trump likely feels if the original reported numbers were more accurate then the Fed would be more inclined to have lowered rates. Of course this may not be true, but the restatements were large and in the same direction. I just don't know who owns the numbers for accuracy? But it may not be unreasonable that it is the person at the top of the department."

This represents a factual misunderstanding of how and why the BLS reports job numbers and later revises them.

Initial job report numbers are always preliminary. The economy is too large and complex to get accurate job numbers so quickly. So instead they report what they can initially and revisions are always announced to a set schedule later. Then as more and better data comes in the numbers are revised and released according to the schedule. This has been going on for years. It is nothing new and there is nothing nefarious or incompetent about the process. It should be noted that there were some rather large revisions in the last few months of the previous administration as well.

The alternative is to wait longer to report more accurate job numbers.

Conservative news outlets have been taking advantage of the fact that their viewers do not understand how job numbers are reported in order to make it sound like the numbers are being manipulated.

Berkshire Hathaway FAQ

---

Contact Shrewd'm
Contact the developer of these message boards.