September 11, 2012
The ‘09 figure uses the “official” unemployment rate — people actively seeking work — while for ‘12 they’re using the “real” unemployment rate which includes discouraged workers. Jan 2009 Aug 2012 Official 7.8% 8.1% Real 14.2% 14.7% Notably, neither Fox nor Fallows cite sources for those data points. Likely suspects include August unemployment figures and alternative measures of labor underutilization from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. I don’t see an easy way to link to the ‘09 data but you can search for it pretty easily.

The ‘09 figure uses the “official” unemployment rate — people actively seeking work — while for ‘12 they’re using the “real” unemployment rate which includes discouraged workers.

              Jan 2009    Aug 2012 
Official      7.8%         8.1% 
Real         14.2%        14.7%

Notably, neither Fox nor Fallows cite sources for those data points. Likely suspects include August unemployment figures and alternative measures of labor underutilization from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. I don’t see an easy way to link to the ‘09 data but you can search for it pretty easily.

7:02pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZjZlBwTDKD3z
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: ethics apples to apples unemployment fox news 
  1. i-learn-things reblogged this from jour72312 and added:
    Bad, Fox News, Bad! When data is used irresponsibly to mislead. Ethics. Ethics. ETHICS!
  2. jour72312 posted this