◼ In the home stretch of the 2012 presidential campaign, from August to September, the unemployment rate fell sharply — raising eyebrows from Wall Street to Washington. - John Crudele/New York Post
The decline — from 8.1 percent in August to 7.8 percent in September — might not have been all it seemed. The numbers, according to a reliable source, were manipulated.
And the Census Bureau, which does the unemployment survey, knew it....
◼ Congress will investigate report of faked pre-election jobs data - Susan Ferrechio/Washington Examiner
"The allegation that data gathered by the Census Bureau is being manipulated for any reason is extremely serious," the GOP aide told the Examiner. "The Oversight Committee has jurisdiction over the Census Bureau and will be thoroughly investigating these claims."
The Census Bureau is part of the Department of Labor, but in 2009 the Obama administration altered the chain of command so that the Census Bureau director reports to the White House as well as to the Labor secretary. Republicans protested the change, saying that it undercuts the independence and trustworthiness of the Census.
