08-04-2016, 07:27 PM
Haha
Quote:Every few years, claims flare up that there’s a suppressed measure of “real unemployment,” far higher than whatever the Labor Department’s latest report says. Thus it may come as a surprise that the first conspiracy theory about the unemployment rate, which emerged in the 1960s, was that the Labor Department was seeking to artificially inflate unemployment—to advance communist objectives, naturally. Ironically, the claims largely revolved around efforts to measure “discouraged” people who weren’t actively seeking work. Today, the exclusion of the discouraged is often presented as Exhibit A that the numbers are manipulated. The original theory held that their inclusion was the method of manipulation.The First, Forgotten Conspiracy Theory About the Unemployment Rate - Real Time Economics - WSJ