Jack Welch laid out his argument for why he believes the Department of Labor got the unemployment rate wrong when it announced last Friday that it had dipped to 7.8 percent in September, in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal published Tuesday evening. Welch equates the reaction to his tweet that “these Chicago guys will do anything..can’t debate so change numbers” to what would happen if someone questioned the former communist regime of Soviet Russia.
Imagine a country where challenging the ruling authorities—questioning, say, a piece of data released by central headquarters—would result in mobs of administration sympathizers claiming you should feel “embarrassed” and labeling you a fool, or worse.
Soviet Russia perhaps? Communist China? Nope, that would be the United States right now, when a person (like me, for instance) suggests that a certain government datum (like the September unemployment rate of 7.8%) doesn’t make sense.
Welch laid out his argument for why he thinks the jobs numbers are easily malleable and why he thinks the number is off.
On Tuesday, Welch stepped down as a contributor to Fortune magazine after the magazine criticized both Welch’s position on the jobs report as well as his tenure as CEO of General Electric.
