The drop in the unemployment rate from 8.1 to 7.8 percent for the month of September was unbelievable. I wish that these numbers were true, but most voters and I know that these numbers are so far off the normal that they smell political. This report is like hog woller, its mighty muddy and has a bad smell. Let’s do the correct math.

There are approximately 23 million workers unemployed in America. When one breaks down the 8.1 percent into tenths, it will be 81 tenths. When one divides 23 million by 81, one gets 283,951. This is how many new jobs that would have to be created to reduce the unemployment from 8.1 to 8 percent. To reduce the unemployment from 8.1 to 7.8 percent, there would need to be 851,852 new jobs created (not 114,000). Yes, the unemployment for September should have remained at 8.1 percent.

Going forward, if the math use in September continues to be used, then it will only take 38,000 new jobs to reduce the unemployment rate by a tenth.

What kind of math are they using? (New math, Fussy math, Muddy math or just plain old last minute math.) Lets compare the math used for September to the math used in April. For April 115,000 (1,000 more than September) new jobs were reported, and the unemployment remained at 8.1 percent for April. Now the math for September has changed so that 114,000 (1,000 less than April) has dropped the unemployment for 8.1 to 7.8 percent. If they used the same math that they used for September in April, their unemployment numbers for April would have been reduced from 8.1 to 7.8 percent. If they had used the math that they used in April for September, then the unemployment numbers would have been reported at 8.1% (no charge) for September. The report is so distorted that is smells worse than hog woller.

This new ploy of calling 60,000 households to get a different unemployment number will not work with voters that need jobs. This looks like a late political ploy to give a fictitious number just before the election. There are still approximately 23 million people that are unemployed and it still takes 283,951 new jobs to decrease the percentage rate by one tenth of a percent.

There is a saying “if it smells like a skunk, then it probably is a skunk.” “If something looks unbelievable, it usually is.”

Leon Chavers
Atmore resident