The U.S. unemployment rate stands at 8.1 percent, lower than 8.3 percent a few months ago and well below levels of around 9 percent last year.
Don't let the declining rate fool you, says international investor Jim Rogers, CEO and chairman of Rogers Holdings.
The government tinkers with the numbers and doesn't stop with jobs reports, either.
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"Remember the government has a huge leeway in how they report all this stuff, and they jiggle the numbers. If you get into the unemployment numbers, you'd be astonished at some of the ways they come up with things to say that everything is better," Rogers tells Newsmax.TV in an exclusive interview.
One way the government makes the labor market look better than it really appears is by excluding those who don't have jobs and are not out there looking out of the labor force.
Only those who are actively job hunting are counting, so when discourage workers are yanked out of the equation, the headline unemployment rate that comes out each month is lower than what it really would be if all those who were out of work but wanted to work were counted.
Expect that trend to really continue this election season.
"You are going to hear a lot of good news between now and November," Rogers says.
"I don't like saying this, but our government has lied to us for many, many times, unfortunately."
"On inflation, they make up the numbers. On unemployment, they make up the numbers. All sorts of things."
See these other exclusive excerpts from the Jim Rogers interview:
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