Pants on Fire # 6: The Obama Administration "Changed the Numbers" on Unemployment

The Lie, as repeated by Jack Welch, Rep. Allen West, and most everyone at Fox News and the whole right-wing conspiracy circus: 

"Those Chicago guys" have somehow "cooked the books," changing the September numbers released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to make it look like the unemployment numbers have gone down.

The Truth: The Bureau of Labor Statistics is, and always has been, freakishly careful with its monthly unemployment report, so much so that the offices where the report is compiled are not even cleaned when the report is being prepared. Here's Jonathan Karl of ABC News reporting on the subject:

Here are the actual charts from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of Oct. 10, 2012:

Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey:                                                                          

Series Id:           LNS14000000
Seasonally Adjusted
Series title:        (Seas) Unemployment Rate
Labor force status:  Unemployment rate
Type of data:        Percent or rate
Age:                 16 years and over

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
2002	5.7	5.7	5.7	5.9	5.8	5.8	5.8	5.7	5.7	5.7	5.9	6.0
2003	5.8	5.9	5.9	6.0	6.1	6.3	6.2	6.1	6.1	6.0	5.8	5.7
2004	5.7	5.6	5.8	5.6	5.6	5.6	5.5	5.4	5.4	5.5	5.4	5.4
2005	5.3	5.4	5.2	5.2	5.1	5.0	5.0	4.9	5.0	5.0	5.0	4.9
2006	4.7	4.8	4.7	4.7	4.6	4.6	4.7	4.7	4.5	4.4	4.5	4.4
2007	4.6	4.5	4.4	4.5	4.4	4.6	4.7	4.6	4.7	4.7	4.7	5.0
2008	5.0	4.9	5.1	5.0	5.4	5.6	5.8	6.1	6.1	6.5	6.8	7.3
2009	7.8	8.3	8.7	8.9	9.4	9.5	9.5	9.6	9.8	10.0	9.9	9.9
2010	9.7	9.8	9.8	9.9	9.6	9.4	9.5	9.6	9.5	9.5	9.8	9.4
2011	9.1	9.0	8.9	9.0	9.0	9.1	9.1	9.1	9.0	8.9	8.7	8.5
2012	8.3	8.3	8.2	8.1	8.2	8.2	8.3	8.1	7.8

Also, if the Obama administration wanted the unemployment numbers to look good, why would they stick with that 7.8% number, a mild continuation of a four-year downward trend? Jon Stewart pointed this out on the Daily Show. Unfortunately, Madame L cannot upload a clip of that show from YouTube, but here's a clip of another commentator, TJ Stewart, describing Stewart's commentary: