According to Jen Psaki, if you were out sick the day the jobs survey was conducted then you aren't counted as having a job. Huh? And someone on here posted that he thinks she's one of the best Press Secretaries ever.
A real genius that Jen is.
Here it is;
numbers. We’ll get the monthly jobs report, of course, for January on Friday.
The way the jobs numbers are calculated is: Every month is — there are — is calculated — every month — it’s a little complicated. But there are some simple things here to understand that most people don’t realize: If a worker was out sick during the week the survey was taken — because it’s — the data is taken over a week, and that is ba- — that is what the monthly jobs numbers is based on — and did not receive paid leave, they are counted as having lost their job.
Now, that is an inaccurate depiction — and this is why I think you’re asking the second question — of whether or not they were unemployed, but that’s how it’s calculated.
Because Omicron was so highly transmissible, nearly 9 million people called out sick in early January when the jobs data was being collected. So, during that same period of time, in the week the survey was taken, the week of January 12th, was at the height of the Omicron spike.
So we just wanted to kind of prepare, you know, people to understand how the data is taken, what they’re looking at, and what it is an assessment of. And as a result, the month’s jobs report may show job losses in large part because workers were out sick from Omicron at the point when it was peaking during the period when — the week where the data was taken.
MORON ALERT