Stevenson speaks with Marketplace on November jobs numbers

December 7, 2012

Betsey Stevenson spoke with American Public Media's Marketplace about the significance of jobs figures in the Labor Department's November employment report. While it is expected that jobs figures worsened in November, Stevenson cautioned against reading too much into the results. For one, Stevenson said, the numbers are subject to a significant margin of error.

"Remember that the employment number is plus or minus 100,000 jobs," Stevenson told Marketplace.

Stevenson also pointed out that November was an unusually tumultuous month for the economy due to tensions over Congressional action on the approaching fiscal cliff, not to mention the influence of the November 6 elections and Hurricane Sandy.

[Listen to the interview]