Economics
White House Warns Latest Jobs Data Will Be Ugly Due to Omicron
- Deese, Psaki warn Covid illnesses are counted as job losses
- January jobs data were collected as U.S. omicron cases soared
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The White House is lowering expectations for this week’s U.S. jobs report, saying that brief absences of workers due to omicron could overstate the number of unemployed people for last month.
Several White House officials have teed up Friday’s report with warnings, saying that the week when surveys were taken for the January payroll numbers was the height of illness absences in the aftermath of the holidays. Federal Reserve officials delivered similar words of caution.