December 15, 2011

DWD: Trust us, we have no idea what we're doing

Scott Walker's Department of Workforce Development claims it's got the most accurate jobs reports, but then immediately admits:
[O]ur state needs an accurate jobs reporting system that allows us to understand the trends without unnecessarily alarming the state’s job seekers and job creators.
So lemme get this straight. If you need an accurate jobs reporting system, then that means you don't have an accurate jobs reporting system, yet we're supposed to rely on the accuracy of your jobs reports that are somehow conjured without an accurate jobs reporting system.

Sounds like they've taken to baffling themselves with their own bullshit.

Them's the only ones left to baffle, once everybody else has caught on.

Not even the Walker-endorsing Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is buying it:
Wisconsin lost private-sector jobs for the fifth consecutive month in November, the same months that the nation has been adding private-sector jobs, according to a report Thursday from the state Department of Workforce Development.
Nor, however, does the MJS mention the DWD's remarkable admission.

That tidbit should be the lead paragraph, accompanied by the fact that the mighty Scott Walker administration has had nearly a year to put together an accurate jobs reporting system and it still doesn't have one.

If this failure occurred in the private sector, heads would surely roll.

3 comments:

Display Name said...

I think they want a system that generates only press releases that make Walker look good. They want one that's a floor wax and a dessert topping. I think it was a member of the S.C. Johnson family of products.

Art Hackett said...

I'm willing to give the labor economists at DWD a pass on this one. An economic crisis such as we've experienced the last four years causes fundamental shifts in behavior among consumers and producers which create havoc with the models used to extrapolate market wide data from limited samples.
You saw that with the first time unemployment claims number Thursday. Economists, working from models, projected a big increase. The data showed a big decrease.
Maybe the models were wrong. Maybe the data are inaccurate. We won't know until we get more samples.

Ninja said...

This is the same system that has always existed. It's the same system used by every state. It's flawed, but that's the federal Bureau of Labor Statistic's problem. It has nothing to do with Scott Walker. Did you even read the press release you link to?