Economy Actually Lost 2.7 Million Jobs In January

Obama’s entire claim that the economy is reviving is based on phony numbers and rigged statistics. Nothing is more misleading than the recent administration claim that the economy added over 200,000 jobs during each of the past three months and that unemployment is stable at 8.3 percent.

Dr. John Hussman of the Hussman Fund says that the claims of job gains are based entirely on weighted figures. “Total non-farm employment in the U.S., before seasonal adjustments, fell by 2,689,000 jobs in January.” Then the spin doctors at the Bureau of Labor Statistics went to work. Hussman explains: “because its typical for the economy to lose a large number of jobs after the holidays, largely in retail trade, construction and manufacturing, the BLS estimated that the ‘normal’ seasonal decline in employment should have been 2,932,000 jobs in January. The difference between the two numbers … was 243,000 jobs, which was reported as an increase in employment.”

Hussman notes that this “adjustment” in 2011 and 2012 was far more extreme than in any previous year since the 1960s. Had the standard adjustment been used, instead of the souped-up figure BLS applied, the total number of new jobs created would be only about 60,000 for January.

And even that may be an overestimation.

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