[alancarp]

"I don't actually believe BLS is cooking the books, although Obama would like that."

Seriously?? They have been playing with the numbers ever since the rate hit 10%. Actually, I found a reference to indicate that "long-term discouraged" unemployment were actually officially done away with in 1994... during the Clinton years. So it isn't like this is a new art form.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Re cooking the books: ("Seriously?") What I mean is that, silly as the presentation of the numbers may be, the BLS has been as infiltrated by Obama-ites as, say, the NLRB. The methods have been changed over the years (hedonic equivalents), but within the methods I don't think they are outright changing numbers.

It isn't as cynically bad as what happened with the CBO scoring of the ObamaCare act, where the CBO is only allowed to project out ten years, so they set it up with ten years of estimated income into the system and six years of benefits.