Last year Americans all across the country were amazed when the unemployment rates across the country took a dive from 8.1 percent in August, down to 7.8 percent in September. The voting public was elated as Obama’s administration seemed to be getting a handle on the unemployment problem in America. We re-elected Obama, hoping that the descent of the unemployment was just the start of a better future economically.

Unfortunately new evidence suggests that this could not be further from the truth. According to a report by the New York Post, citing an unidentified, but reliable source, the jobs data in the months leading up to the 2012 election was allegedly manipulated. As if it isn’t bad enough that the numbers were altered, the governing organization that manages the survey knew about it.

The report alleges that just two years prior to the election, the Census Bureau, which handles the unemployment survey, caught an employee falsifying data for the report. The unemployment report is one of the most closely monitored sectors of the American economy. A source claims the deception was much deeper than just that single employee.

The source told the New York Post, “He’s not the only one.” While the Post claims the informant is willing to talk with the Labor Department and with Congress, for now, he wants his identity kept secret.

Julius Buckmon is the Census employee who was caught manipulating data for the unemployment report in the prior incident. He told John Crudele, at the Post that he had been ordered to make up the information by his superiors in the Census Bureau.

Information Altered

The methods used by the Census Bureau may be to blame for employees being able to easily manipulate figures. The bureau requires that 9 out 10 households targeted for the report have to be reached. In the New York and Philadelphia regions the workers were falling short of this goal.

According to Buckmon, the Philadelphia office simply fabricated the missing interviews.

It was a phone conversation – I forget the exact words – but it was, ‘Go ahead and fabricate it’ to make it what it was,” Buckmon said.

He explained that he simply filled out the surveys for people who either did not answer their door, or he was unable to reach via telephone. He was apparently a very ambitious man, as he conducted almost three times as many interviews as other workers in his office. However, many of these interviews were falsified information that he himself entered into the survey. Depending on how he marked the survey, his actions alone could have impacted the unemployment report.

Buckmon did note that he was not told how to fill in the information on the surveys, so no one stood over his shoulder telling him which boxes to check. However, the Census Bureau also never publicly admitted a problem in its data gathering. It also failed to inform the Labor Department that the data gathered was not perfect in its source.

A Labor Department spokesman said, “It would be normal procedure to notify us if there is a problem with data collection.”

Jack Welch claimed that manipulation had taken place in October of last year. He tweeted his opinion on October 5th.

Unbelievable jobs numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything..can’t debate so change numbers

— Jack Welch (@jack_welch) October 5, 2012

Will Congress Take Action?

Crudele has offered to give all of his research and his sources to the Labor Department’s inspector general, but has yet to hear back from the office as to whether action will be taken.
He writes, “I hope the next stop will be Congress, since manipulation of data like this not only gives voters the wrong impression of the economy but also leads lawmakers, the Federal Reserve and companies to make uninformed decisions.”

Crudele’s closing statement is indicative of what a good journalist should do. Journalists as a group have become known as liberal agenda pushers, and it’s about time we broke out of that stereotype. As a journalist, when you find a story of corruption, your duty is to bring that story to the light. We are supposed to uncover corruption and give the general public the truth. That’s why we have freedom of the press in the first place. My hat is off to you Mr. Crudele for your outstanding research and willingness to bring stories like this to the light.