AP’s Friday Jobs Report Coverage Also Ignored Many Predictions of Downward Revisions to First-Quarter GDP
This morning (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), I noted that Friday afternoon’s coverage of the government’s jobs report at the Associated Press by economics writers Christopher Rugaber and Josh Boak carried predictions of “nearly 3 percent” economic growth this year. Those predictions ignore how difficult achieving that will be after the first quarter’s miserable 0.1 percent annualized result and “most economists’” estimates that the second quarter will come in at 3.5 percent. Those two results require average annualized growth of 3.9 percent during the third and fourth quarters — something the economy hasn’t seen in ten years. Additionally, it appears that if the Federal Reserve under Janet Yellen sees that kind of growth, it will put on the brakes by raising interest rates in the name of heading off inflation.
Since they were entertaining predictions about future developments, it’s more than a little odd that the AP pair chose to ignore many analysts’ predictions that the first quarter’s GDP result will move into contraction when it gets revised in future months — especially since those downward revisions, supposedly reflecting deferred growth, partially justify their 3.5 percent second-quarter prediction. It sure looks like Rugaber and Boak were selective in deciding what they would report.