Financial Expert Says Numbers in New Jobs Report 'Do Not Add Up'
Editor’s Note: Our readers responded strongly to this story when it originally ran; we’re reposting it here in case you missed it.
My father, may he rest in peace, was not the political animal that his son turned out to be, but he did have one unshakable belief about government reports.
They’re made up to reflect whatever the president wants people to believe the truth to be, he thought. And he’s not alone in that, of course.
Tax attorney and registered investment advisor Rebecca Walser would probably have gotten along with my dad — at least while they were talking about this subject.
Walser appeared on Fox Business’ “Mornings with Maria” on Feb. 2 to discuss, along with a number of other guests, the most recent jobs report from President Joe Biden’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“It’s a shock, actually,” Walser said of the report that claimed that 353,000 new jobs were added in January.
“It doesn’t jibe, because The Challenger Report just said that U.S. employers announced 82,000 job cuts in the month of January,” Walser explained, referring to the January 2024 report from Challenger, Gray and Christmas that cited 82,307 job cuts in January.
That number was a 136 percent increase over the previous month — not a terrible surprise, given that many companies will avoid laying employees off over the holidays — and the highest number of job cuts announced in January since 2009, during the so-called “Great Recession.”
“So where are all these jobs coming from?” Walser asked. “Obviously we need to look at the details, but it does not compute. They do not add up.
“And I think that, you know — you’ve got UPS saying 12,000, Citi saying 20,000 — we’re getting these consistently big announcements of massive layoffs. And yet, we come with a jobs report that’s like the best jobs report we’ve seen in six months?
“What is happening with the BLS data?” Walser wanted to know. “What is happening?”
You can see the “Mornings with Maria” clip below.
The Jobs Report claims that 353k jobs were added in January – despite a large number of companies announcing 80-100k in layoffs. @rebeccawalser is skeptical and is saying what we are all thinking: pic.twitter.com/Mk6dCwcv1f
— Andrew @ Don’t Walk, RUN! (@DontWalkRUN) February 2, 2024
Charles Payne, another Fox Business host appearing on the same segment, later posted to X that Americans made less money in January, no matter what the Jobs Report said.
The most important part of the jobs report – how much money are people making. Turns out people earned less in January than December because of fewer hours. pic.twitter.com/IGs6n1tdSi
— Charles V Payne (@cvpayne) February 2, 2024
“The most important part of the jobs report — how much money are people making,” Payne wrote. “Turns out people earned less in January than December because of fewer hours.”
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