Spin v. Reality In Md. Job Numbers

The headline on the news release out of Maryland's Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation yesterday sounded pretty great: "Private Sector Gains 18,700 Jobs Over-the-Year."

Read the body of the release, though, and you'll discover the actual news was not so great. In July, it says, Maryland actually lost 9,000 jobs, one of the worst performances in the nation and a distinct outlier in a month when 36 states and Washington, D.C., gained jobs. Not that the agency was dwelling on that. "Still, four out of seven months in 2014 have posted over-the-month total job gains," the release said. "Compared with July 2013, Maryland total jobs are up by 16,300. Maryland's private sector also gained 18,700 jobs over-the-year."

In a further exercise in looking on the sunny side of life, the agency went to some pains to explain that the U.S. Department of Labor's revised estimates for June confirmed a previous report that Maryland had gained 7,700 jobs and that the unemployment rate for that month was unchanged at 5.8 percent.

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