Let me propose a musical background for the jobs report: "What goes up must come down" or the opening line from "Spinning Wheel" by Blood, Sweat & Tears.

It's been that way for some time. We cheer a jobs report in September and then we learn that it was revised downward in October. How does this happen so much? Who is preparing these jobs reports? Do they know what they are doing?

Let's check the latest jobs report:

"Total nonfarm payroll employment was essentially unchanged in October (+12,000), and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment continued to trend up in health care and government. Temporary help services lost jobs. Employment declined in manufacturing due to strike activity.

Manufacturing employment decreased by 46,000 in October, reflecting a decline of 44,000 in transportation equipment manufacturing that was largely due to strike activity. 

So the strike did it? A short strike caused this? Sorry -- I can't buy that, because it makes no sense.

Are the bureaucrats cooking the books or do they know what in the world they are doing? Does anyone in the Bureau of Labor Statistics understand how confusing these up and downs, or revisions as they call them, sound to those of us who rely on their information?

I think that Mr. Musk needs to be given another assignment: Fix the BLS, Elon, because these "revisions" are freaking out the population.

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Image: BLS