It’s time to play a fun and challenging new game called Find the Phony where we all try to guess which unemployment data is phony. Is it Option A courtesy of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or Option B courtesy of Trump et al? Feel free to post your answers in the comments.
Tag: Economics
Unemployment
As a candidate and as president, Donald Trump has made wildly exaggerated claims about unemployment in America. The graph on the left shows the unemployment rate since 2001 and, for a broader measure of those seeking work, the graph also shows the rate of unemployment plus underemployment*. As of last month, these two rates are 4.7% and 9.2% respectively. Trump, on the other hand, has claimed rates ranging from 20% to 42%. By this degree of exaggeration, Trump would claim that the average height of an American male (about 5′ 10″ in reality) is over 18 feet tall! And that’s giving Trump the benefit of the doubt that he includes underemployment. If his claims are about only unemployment, it’s as if Trump is claiming the average American male is over 36 feet tall!
* The unemployment plus underemployment rate is the broadest unemployment measure. It includes those who are unemployed, those who are so economically discouraged that they have stopped seeking employment, and those working part-time who wish they were working full-time.
Data on the Rocks 