The Big Take DC
Economists May Be Using Bad Data to Make Big Decisions
Covid-19 and general mistrust among members of the public could be skewing US government employment surveys.
Photographer: Olivier Douliery/AFP
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Last year, as the US Federal Reserve kept raising interest rates to rein in inflation, Chair Jerome Powell kept pointing to one category of data that was guiding his decision-making: The labor market. But it’s possible the Fed’s labor market data-of-choice may have been faulty.