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http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2004/07/03/20040... Monthly job estimates can fuel misleading conclusions
Preliminary figures often get quoted, but numbers can change greatly when revised
Saturday, July 03, 2004
Mark Niquette
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
When Vice President Dick Cheney stopped in Lewis Center last month to say the economy is "moving in the right direction," one of the statistics he cited as proof was Ohio’s job growth in April.
"About 4,300 workers found new jobs in April here in Ohio," Cheney said during a speech at NexTech Materials.
Treasury Secretary John W. Snow also pointed to the statistic during a recent trip to Columbus, saying, "That’s terrific news for 4,300 of Ohio’s workers and their families."
The problem was, Ohio actually lost 700 jobs in April.
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One more quote from the article--
"My advice to people is not to believe a word any politician says about statistics," said Lucia Dunn, an Ohio State University economics professor. "They can make the numbers read any way they want to."