Playing With Numbers

   The president spoke for an  hour this morning praising the sharp recovery in American jobs reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It was called a news conference, held in the White House Rose Garden. But he left without taking questions.
   The BLS said the economy added 2.5 million jobs in May, and the unemployment rate dipped to 13.3 percent, down from 14.7 percent in April.
   However, the agency changed the way those furloughed because of the corona virus from being unemployed to being employed but absent from work. In an addendum to its report, the BLS acknowledged that if those workers had been classified in a way similar to previous reports, the jobless rate in May would have been 3 percentage points higher, or nearly 18 percent.
   The number of workers now classified as unemployed was 21 million in May, down 2.1 million from the month before. But by changing the way workers are marked as unemployed, number crunchers can paint a more optimistic picture of the nation's economy.
   And that is the picture the president presented to the nation in his hour-long speech, waving a hand to dismiss questions raised as he left.