May jobless rate affected by BLS error (The Washington Post)

An error by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics means the May jobless rate in the US of 13.3% reported on Friday should likely be higher at about 16.3%, The Washington Post reports. According to the BLS note, a large number of workers who were not working during the survey period but expected to return to their jobs were classified as employed rather than “employed but absent from work.” This misclassification of survey respondents also happened in the prior report survey. The BLS is working to fix the problem, but experts told the Post the error is not the result of political meddling.