There's lies, damn lies, statistics, jobs reports, and the politicians who use them for their benefit

This story from fivethirtyeight.com talks about how the monthly jobs report is a known unknown. The figure is almost always revised down, sometimes massively. It is well known to be up to 120,000 too high in any one month and the press, and especially those with an interest in seeing it high - like the sitting President - seldom acknowledge that. Unemployment figures have a similar problem.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-jobs-report-is-overhyped-heres-why-thats-a-problem/

As an example here is a comment from Donald Trump about unemployment figures at a 2016 rally in Des Moines, Iowa

The unemployment number, as you know, is totally fiction"

But it's so funny how he now he takes those numbers as gospel truth as it serves his best interests:

Ditto all those people that while Obama was talking about job figures were always saying "The real rate is more like 42%!". Oh wait:

"5.3 percent unemployment -- that is the biggest joke there is in this country. … The unemployment rate is probably 20 percent, but I will tell you, you have some great economists that will tell you it's a 30, 32. And the highest I've heard so far is 42 percent."

That was actually Donald Trump speaking in September 2015 but his supporters and Republicans always trot out these specious figures when Democrats are in power.