According to today’s Labor Department figures, the U.S. created 192,000 jobs in March and the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6.7%. Consensus expected an increase of 200,000 non-farm jobs.
With that said, we asked in today’s poll, Do you trust the jobs report?
At the time of this post, 75% responded NO; 25% said YES.
Of those that voted NO, they said history provided enough evidence not to trust the report. One noted that the report “comes out way too quickly and is revised way too often. I believe they had to do a massive restatement of the numbers a couple years ago.”
Another asked, “How can one trust those who deliberately avoid plummeting participation rates because those #s contradict their propaganda?”
While some voted NO, they felt that didn’t diminish the report’s use. “I don't trust the reported number itself, but it's probably consistently off, so as an indicator, it has some value.”
One commenter explained their choice more simply: “I believe in the jobs number, the inflation rate, and the Easter Bunny.”
Over in the YES group, one responder explained, “I don't trust it as a reliable sample of the number of jobs created. It might be a flawed sample and even more flawed methodology. But unlike government metrics like inflation, this one is at least consistently flawed. If we can game the incremental change in something that is consistently flawed, then I have a consistent use for it.”