IT'S NOT THAT PUZZLING, REALLY

Even though Paul Ryan may not be up to the task, the employment & unemployment numbers aren't that complicated.

Unemployment rate drops to 7.8 percent
By Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Friday, October 5, 2012

WASHINGTON — A sharp, unexpected drop in the unemployment rate Friday to 7.8 percent, a 44-month low, threatened to shake up the race for the White House and put the obscure Bureau of Labor Statistics in the crossfire amid unsubstantiated claims that the employment numbers are being cooked.

The number of people who reported that they were employed – 873,000 as measured in the household survey – rose by a large number over the number of people who reported that they were unemployed during the month, 456,000. In September, 12.1 million Americans reported that they were jobless.

The sharp drop in the unemployment rate jumps out, however, because it wasn’t accompanied by a similarly large increase in the BLS numbers for employment. But employment and unemployment are measured on different surveys. The employment numbers are measured by the establishment survey of employers. The unemployment numbers, a smaller and more volatile sample, are gathered in a survey of households.