Our very government is partisan.

[resident_evil]

Census ‘faked’ 2012 election jobs report
http://nypost.com/2013/11/18/census-faked-2012-election-jobs-report/

In the home stretch of the 2012 presidential campaign, from August to September, the unemployment rate fell sharply — raising eyebrows from Wall Street to Washington.

The decline — from 8.1 percent in August to 7.8 percent in September — might not have been all it seemed. The numbers, according to a reliable source, were manipulated.

And the Census Bureau, which does the unemployment survey, knew it.

Just two years before the presidential election, the Census Bureau had caught an employee fabricating data that went into the unemployment report, which is one of the most closely watched measures of the economy.

And a knowledgeable source says the deception went beyond that one employee — that it escalated at the time President Obama was seeking reelection in 2012 and continues today.

 

[Mr. Friscus]

You're surprised?

Hell, they've been shaving people off of the unemployment number ever since it was deemed so important. Nowadays, I think you have to jump through hoops, hop on one foot, and own a pet donkey just to be considered "unemployed".

Our true unemployment rate is over 13%, using the U6 unemployment rate

The U6 unemployment rate counts not only people without work seeking full-time employment (the more familiar U-3 rate), but also counts "marginally attached workers and those working part-time for economic reasons." Note that some of these part-time workers counted as employed by U-3 could be working as little as an hour a week. And the "marginally attached workers" include those who have gotten discouraged and stopped looking, but still want to work. The age considered for this calculation is 16 years and over.

However, both Democrats and Republicans use other numbers because they merely sound better. Childish, I know, but true.

 

[SW48]

The unemployment rate given by the government is a political tool used by the party in power to manipulate how they see fit.

A lot of workers gave up looking for work and those would have to be included in a true number.