The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 13.3 percent in May from 14.7 percent, and 2.5 million jobs were added — a surprisingly positive reading in the midst of a recession that has paralyzed the economy in the wake of the viral pandemic mprnews.org/story/2020/06/…
UPDATE: Once again, the Labor Department acknowledged making errors in how it classified people as employed and said the real May rate is worse than the numbers indicate. mprnews.org/story/2020/06/…
The Labor Department admitted that government household survey-takers mistakenly counted about 4.9 million temporarily laid-off people as employed. The government doesn't correct its survey results for fear of the appearance of political manipulation.
Had the mistake been corrected, the unemployment rate would have risen to 16.1 percent in May. But the corrected April figure would have been more than than 19 percent, rather than 14.7 percent.
