*SMLR-Net, the source of selected news on labor and employment relations and human resource management.* *

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/magazine/are-the-jobs-number-killing-jobs.... *

*How to Make Jobs Disappear by Adam Davidson* New York Time, June 19, 2012

At precisely 8:30 a.m. on the first Friday of the month, thousands of people (including me) stare at a dull government Web sitehttp://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htmand hit refresh until they see *the number*: how many jobs were created or lost during the previous month. Then, with amazing speed, reports and analysis of the number are disseminated by newspapers, bank economists, independent analysts, investment newsletters and countless TV pundits. Within minutes, the national narrative is set. Either the economy is doing far worse (like last month) or far better (as in January) than anyone realized.

The jobs number, which only the most die-hard econonerds (including me) used to care about, is supposed to tell us how the economy is doing. Now, though, it is doing something much more complicated. The report on past job performance has morphed into a driver of future job performance, essentially mucking up the thing it’s measuring. And that’s not good, because the initial jobs data are not as precise as many people seem to think.

For rest of article: * http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/magazine/are-the-jobs-number-killing-jobs.... *

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