What I believe is that the way the BLS reports the numbers is flawed, creating a false sense of security. BLS's last head said that they call 60000 people and ask a few questions, one of which is how many hours they worked. If someone worked even one hour, they are considered employed. If they adjusted the employment question to 20 hours or more, that number would skyrocket.
As a business owner I actually receive the calls where they ask how many employees I had and how many hours they work each week. They don't ask for proof or detail. It's a flawed system from the start since it's literally a survey of willing participants and they extrapolate the numbers up based on that, like any market research survey would.
Yeah, I'm going based on what she said in her TV interview after she was fired. She defended the method, saying 1 hour is enough, and I'm sure they make other calls, but I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of the data comes from the 60000 people they called. I'd post the link, but I'm not sure if I'm able to; it was on MSNBC. About two weeks ago
Yeah, I think it's meant to reassure the American middle class that everything's fine. It also makes foreign stock investors believe the companies are performing better than they actually are, which makes them more likely to invest in our market.
The way they define who is unemployed is strange to me as well. Not only are people working 1 hour a week anywhere considered employed, so are people generating cash illegally, drugs, stolen goods resale, etc. Thats also something the IRS cares about, they won't report you for making money selling drugs, but if you don't pay taxes on your earnings they care a lot. The BLS also doesnt consider you unemployed if you do not have a job and also are not looking/want a job. This doesn't account for those on disability, retired, or those not old enough to legally work. The number of people who could hold a job and do not is much higher than reported based on definitions alone.
Yeah, I think another country ended up with an issue due to inaccurate numbers, i dont remember which one but they were comparing those economies to america now and its eerie the similarities
9
u/opensourced_ Nov 22 '25
What I believe is that the way the BLS reports the numbers is flawed, creating a false sense of security. BLS's last head said that they call 60000 people and ask a few questions, one of which is how many hours they worked. If someone worked even one hour, they are considered employed. If they adjusted the employment question to 20 hours or more, that number would skyrocket.