All Commentary
Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Government Job Reports Can Be Misleading

The May jobs report implies a robust economy, but there's a lot more nuance to the numbers than just the unemployment rate.


The jobs report for the month of May has recently been released, and Republicans—particularly President Trump—have been very busy congratulating themselves about the rosy unemployment rate. In fairness, unemployment is currently the lowest it’s been since the turn of the millennium, which is nothing to turn one’s nose up at. But there’s more to a healthy economy than a low unemployment rate. So, what does the May jobs report actually say? And what do those numbers really imply? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they unpack the May jobs report and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

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Quick Hits

Dog buys food with leaves

Bare-knuckle boxing

Foolishness of the Week

Bernie Sanders says Disney needs a moral defense

Topic of the Week

Unemployment numbers


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  • James R. Harrigan is a Senior Editor at the American Institute for Economic Research. He is also co-host of the Words & Numbers podcast.

  • Dr. Antony Davies is an Associate professor of Economics at Duquesne University, and co-host of the podcast, Words & Numbers.