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US: Employment up (non-farm payrolls), unemployment up (household survey)
Sometimes, and February was one of those times, the information on the U.S. labor market doesn’t make sense. Many argue that government agencies are cooking the books. However, the counter argument is: Why wouldn’t they cook the books ‘consistently,’ that is, if they cook the non-farm payrolls survey up to show strength in the labor market they should also cook the books for the household survey. The problem is that to keep the ‘consistency’ over time, especially if you have a particular agenda, it means that statisticians would have to ‘change’ the ‘recipe’ every month (i.e., that is, they will ... (full story)