Census Bureau Accused of Manipulating Employment Data

The US Census Bureau has been accused of faking data used to calculate the national unemployment rate, during the final month of the 2012 presidential election campaign. In response, the Bureau says it does not believe that there was a 'systematic manipulation' of the data.

On Monday, New York Post columnist John Crudele claimed that he has found evidence that Census Bureau employees manipulated survey data, leading to a published unemployment rate fall from 8.1% in August to 7.8% in September, and consequently helping Barack Obama's re-election. The new rate was a 44-month low, the best since Obama first took office.

The US unemployment rate is calculated through the results of a telephone survey run by the Census Bureau among 60,000 households across the country, with each household interviewed representing 5,000 US homes. A 90% interview hit rate is required by the The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

In 2010, former Census Bureau employee Julius Buckmon, who conducted surveys around the Philadelphia region, was fired after it was found that he had faked data used in the national unemployment report. According to Buckmon, an unnamed superior had given him the go ahead to fabricate data, and he obliged by completing surveys for non-existent people, thus boosting the number recorded as being in employment.

Crudele says his source has told him that this practice has been continuing since Buckmon was sacked. While wanting to remain anonymous for now, the source says they are willing to talk to the Labor Department and Congress about the claims.

Commenting in a statement, The Census Bureau said that it takes allegations of fraud by its employees very seriously, and that fabrication of data by an employee is grounds for disciplinary action, including dismissal and possible criminal action.

'We carefully cross check and verify the work of our staff to ensure the data's validity, including random quality control monitoring. That monitoring process includes re-interviewing respondents, and rechecking the data an employee has submitted, looking for red flags that indicate possible fabrication, such as abnormally short lengths of interviews or higher survey completion rates that are out of sync with normal survey collection productivity levels,' the bureau stated.

Both the bureau and the BLS have now reported Crudele's claims to the Commerce Department Inspector General Office for further investigation.

Web site: www.census.gov .