The most common error in business journalism

I read a lot of business journalism every day. It’s my job, and I love my job.

So I can say with some degree of expertise that the error in the headline on Jack Shafer‘s column about the brouhaha over the Bureau of Labor Statistics is one that I see a LOT.

Maybe not every day. But every other day? Yes.

A drop in the unemployment rate from 8.1 percent to 7.8 percent is not a drop of 0.3 percent. It is a drop of 0.3 percentage points, which is how Shafer refers to the change in his column. Percent-wise, it is a 3.7 percent drop.

Too many business journalists don’t know the difference between a percentage point change and a percent change.

For shame, Reuters headline writer.