CIO slams LA Times' coverage of job growth

Thomas E. Nugent, a contributing editor to the National Review and the chief investment officer of PlanMember Advisors Inc., didn’t like a story in the Saturday Los Angeles Times written by Molly Hennessy-Fiske about job growth.

Nugent wrote, “In her first paragraph, Hennessy-Fiske clearly identified the direction she wanted to take the reader: ‘The U.S. economy added a disappointing 51,000 jobs last month, the government said Friday, and although hiring in July and August was revised sharply higher, lackluster employment growth is still expected to dog Republicans in upcoming midterm elections.’ (Italics mine.)

“Way down in paragraph ten, Hennessy-Fiske, grudgingly perhaps, reported that, ‘The Labor Department also revised upward by 810,000 its estimate of the number of new jobs added in the 12 months ended March, bringing that period’s monthly average up to 200,000.’ Here, however, she made no comment on what those data would do to Republican hopes for re-election. She also made no mention of the more favorable household employment figures.

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“Some analysts see the payroll jobs number — which is tied to jobs that result from business employment — as a lagging indicator of the economy. On the other hand, the household number, which is said to be somewhat less accurate (nobody is punching time cards), reflects the growth in the entrepreneurial economy. For example, it is said that thousands of people now make their living on the Internet, yet none of these people is reflected in the payroll statistic.”

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