On Sun, 14 Aug 2016 17:44:57 -0400, Keyser Soze
wrote:

Typically, I view government statistics that interest me "relatively,"
especially the ones under questions because of the inherent vagaries of
data gathering and manipulation.

Perhaps back in the olden days when people were using a pencil,
"statistics" was an arcane science but these days it is just data base
analysis. The first rule is garbage in garbage out. You can frame a
"view" to make the data look almost any way you want. In the case of
the unemployment number, the biggest variable is who they consider to
be unemployed. In the current view, that excludes anyone who quit, was
fired with cause, simply refused to apply for unemployment or anyone
who was never able to get a job in the first place. You are pretty
much left with the ones who were laid off, signed up for unemployment
and are still eligible for benefits.