Des Moines, IA – Governor Branstad’s administration is engaged in a deceptive campaign to falsely inflate Iowa job growth numbers, according to a document uncovered by Progress Iowa. A fabricated statistic, called “Gross over-the-month Employment Gains” has been added to a spreadsheet produced by Iowa Workforce Development, beginning in February of 2011. The newly created category is not recognized by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In the past, the Branstad administration has publicly promoted ‘gross jobs’ as opposed to ‘net jobs’ in order to claim progress toward a campaign promise to create 200,000 jobs. Now, the administration has invented an entirely new statistic, claiming only counting jobs gained, while not factoring in jobs lost.
“Governor Branstad needs to stop deceiving Iowans,” said Matt Sinovic, executive director of Progress Iowa. “Using his phony math, if I were hired three times and laid off three times in the same year, he would get to take credit for creating three jobs. Anyone with an elementary school education knows that’s not how math works. If the Governor had spent the last two years focused on helping working and middle class Iowans as opposed to offering up massive corporate tax giveaways, his administration wouldn’t have to cook the books to hide his broken campaign promises.”
Numbers recognized by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) tell a very different story than the numbers invented by the Branstad Administration. From January 2011 through November 2012, “total nonfarm employment” grew by a net 18,700 jobs in Iowa, and “resident total employment” in Iowa fell by 7,000 jobs over the same period. Meanwhile, Branstad’s inflated and inaccurate “gross jobs” numbers show more than 97,000 jobs created during the same time period.
To see the discrepancy between the new statistic invented by the Branstad administration and the BLS recognized total nonfarm employment, click here or visit: http://progressiowa.org/sections/blog/50eee65e18ae8820dd000004.
