West: Jobs numbers were cooked

Count Rep. Allen West among those who think Friday’s jobs numbers were cooked.

The controversial Florida Republican called the latest jobs report “confusing to say the least” and said he agreed with accusations by former GE CEO Jack Welch that President Barack Obama’s administration may have engineered the numbers to aid his reelection bid.

(Also on POLITICO: Unemployment back to Inauguration Day level)

“I agree with former GE CEO Jack Welch, Chicago style politics is at work here,” West wrote on his Facebook page Friday. “Somehow by manipulation of data we are all of a sudden below 8 percent unemployment, a month from the Presidential election. This is Orwellian to say the least and representative of Saul Alinsky tactics from the book ‘Rules for Radicals’ - a must read for all who want to know how the left strategize.”

Welch wrote on Twitter earlier Friday morning that the jobs figures were “unbelievable” and that “these Chicago guys will do anything” — a reference to Obama’s reelection campaign.

(Also on POLITICO: Jack Welch: The unemployment numbers are cooked)

Friday’s jobs report showed an unemployment rate of 7.8 percent and 114,000 jobs added in September, marking the lowest employment rate since Obama was sworn into office in January 2009.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, whose agency releases the jobs figures every month, responded that charges of a conspiracy theory are “ludicrous.”

"I'm insulted when I hear that because we have a very professional civil service," she said on CNBC. "I have the highest regard for our professionals that do the calculations at the [Bureau of Labor Statistics]. They are trained economists."





