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In reply to the discussion: Jobless rate soared to 14.7% in April as U.S. shed 20.5 million jobs amid coronavirus pandemic [View all]progree
(10,911 posts)where they highlight the Household Survey's Employment as the measure of the number of jobs instead of the Establishment Survey's, instead of the other way around, I'll be very interested, as well any rationale they give for preferring it, instead of the other way around. And the Establishment Survey's number is the lowest since 2011, not 1999. They presented the information in the two surveys the way they always do -- highlighting the Establishment Survey's number as the count of jobs, while burying the Household Survey's Employment number in the middle of the 5th paragraph as just another of many statistics produced in that report. Edit: Or not even including it at all in the introductory paragraphs.
Edit: I looked at 4 previous jobs reports ( May 2013, March 2016, June 2017, May 2019), and in their introductory paragraphs, they don't even mention the Household Survey's employment. So as far as I know this (April 2020) is the first time they include it at all in their introductory paragraphs.
I will acknowledge, on the Household Survey, it is interesting that they did mention that the Labor Force Participation Rate and the Employment to Population Ratio (two metrics that the Establishment Survey has no equivalent metric for) are the lowest in many decades, but didn't make any similar comment about "Total employment". But their comment that the employment to population ratio is the lowest in the history of the series, which goes all the way back to 1948, I think, is a very devastating comment.
Bonus: employment to population ratio:
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS12300000
Lowest seems to be 54.9% in October 1949, until now (51.3%)