Job Figures Won’t Add Up

By John Crudele

The charade continues this Friday.

That’s when the Labor Department will announce how many jobs it claims were lost in the US economy during December.

The number is essentially worthless to anyone who really wants to know what’s cooking in the job market. But it is worse than worthless — it’s harmful — to policymakers who are trying to determine what to do about things like interest rates and the latest incarnation of the stock market bubble.

For the record, Wall Street thinks that the department will report that no jobs were lost — zero — during December. This comes after only 11,000 jobs were reported lost in November, the first pleasant surprise in months for those who foolishly care about these statistics.

Continue reading Why The Government’s Job Figures Won’t Add Up