Are Labor Markets Really Improving? Pulling Back Curtain on ‘Magic of Government Statistics’

As America enters the thick of this year’s second quarter, the repercussions of the Biden administration’s economic policies become more apparent.

New numbers from the government’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, released Tuesday, revealed that the number of job openings dropped to the lowest level since May 2021.

The drop in job openings from 9.9 million in February to 9.6 million in March have led many to conclude that the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes actually are balancing the labor markets. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell went so far as to say that the survey is a good sign that we will see a “better balance” in labor markets, according to Yahoo Finance.

Still, many economists, including Heritage Foundation economist Peter St. Onge, question whether the numbers really add up. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)

In a recent Twitter video, St. Onge explains how “the magic of government statistics” has led to “fake job numbers” and a misleading narrative that interest rate hikes actually are strengthening the economy.

St. Onge says the drop in job openings is largely due to how the Labor Department is reclassifying many jobs and no longer including them in measuring the health of the economy. This change has made it appear as though employers are filling their open positions, when in reality they’re not, the economist says. 

Even with the Biden Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, we have only half of a dire story, St. Onge adds. To better understand the state of our economy, he points to unemployment numbers from the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics that also suffer from manipulation.

St. Onge explains that 3.6 million American workers have been removed from the unemployment count entirely as a result of being classified as individuals who are “out of the labor force.” This reclassification continues to hold down unemployment to 3.5% rather than 6%—the number seen at the beginning of the 2008 financial crisis.

This is just the Biden administration’s latest attempt to manipulate the monetary system and compensate for the negative impacts of its weak monetary policy, the economist says. Instead of reining in government spending, the Federal Reserve continues to hold American businesses, banks, and wallets hostage with excessive interest rate hikes and other job-crushing policies.

On today’s edition of the “Problematic Women” podcast, we explain some of the biggest economic news of the week.

Also on today’s show, we discuss the one-year anniversary of the leak of the Supreme Court’s draft opinion in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The Biden administration also declared war on your air conditioner; we tell you what you need to know about this latest green energy craze. And as always, we’ll crown our Problematic Woman of the Week.

Listen to the podcast below: