What are you suggesting? The survey has been conducyed since 1941. Census collects the data, sends it straight to BLS. OPM and Congress have oversight.Only those who file for unemployment insurance are counted in the official government unemployment numbers. Those who have exhausted their benefits, who have given up, or who are severely underemployed just to get a little cash in hand are not counted in the offical unemployment numbers. Which is why the real unemplyment figures are often as much as double or even more than the official unemplyment figure.
And your source for that is????
Let's look at facts:
Employment Situation Technical Note
Emphasis mine.
Or if you had looked at How the Government Measure Unemployment
Some people think that to get these figures on unemployment, the Government uses the number of persons filing claims for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits under State or Federal Government programs. But some people are still jobless when their benefits run out, and many more are not eligible at all or delay or never apply for benefits. So, quite clearly, UI information cannot be used as a source for complete information on the number of unemployed. ...
Because unemployment insurance records relate only to persons who have applied for such benefits, and since it is impractical to actually count every unemployed person each month, the Government conducts a monthly sample survey called the Current Population Survey (CPS) to measure the extent of unemployment in the country. The CPS has been conducted in the United States every month since 1940, when it began as a Work Projects Administration project.
Unemployment Insurance benefits HAVE NEVER EVER BEEN USED TO DETERMINE OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT NUMBERS.
And yes, apparently I do have to shout since I myself end up stating this every month, other people state it, and 3 minutes of research would have told you it.
Okay you're right and I stand corrected. I was thinking of the new cliams filed that comes out every week.
So after looking at the data a bit, it seems that our government determines the unemployment rate by polling 60,000 households? I've never been polled about that. Nobody I know has ever been polled about that.
"The government" is not monolithic. The laws and policies for statistical agencies are very strict. No politician or policy maker has access or influence. I know the methodology well. You do need to know how to analyze the data or you could be fooled by political spin. Most of the recent drop has been for the wrong reasons and is not really good news.Do you trust the numbers that the government then feeds us?
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