White House's job numbers don't add up

Republicans brag about jobs that haven't been officially counted.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- When the national unemployment rate falls to a 5-1/2 year low of 4.4%, you'd think the White House wouldn't have to dress up numbers to make their record look good.
But that's what happened on Friday.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that nonfarm payrolls grew by 92,000 in October, while growth in August and September was revised higher. Over the past year, 1.9 million jobs have been added to the payrolls, according to the BLS. See full story.
The White House crowed: "Since August 2003, more than 6.8 million jobs have been created."
Except that's not what the official government figures show -- at least not yet.
According to the establishment survey tabulated by the BLS, payrolls have grown from about 129.8 million in August 2003 to 135.8 million in October. That's a jump of 6 million, or 6.047 million if you want to take it out to the last decimal.
August 2003 was the month payrolls began growing again after two years of layoffs, and it was also just after the 2003 tax cut took effect. The White House has said the tax cut on dividends and capital gains was a major reason for the turnaround in the economy.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/story.aspx?siteid=mktw&guid=%7BE4CBA9D4-8D73-4C64-94FF-3A934B28E72E%7D

Where did the 6.8 million number come from? Not from the household survey. That survey measures a slightly different set of workers, and it says employment has risen 7.7 million since August 2003.
A spokesman at the Labor Department said the 6.8 million figure reflects an additional 810,000 jobs that the government thinks it missed in earlier estimates to the 6 million that have been actually recorded in the government's books.
---------------------------------------------------------------

I love election year politics when they use fuzzy math.