White House Blames Winter Weather for Potential Job Losses
The White House wants a do-over for February’s yet-to-be released jobs numbers, arguing that the blizzards that hammered the country last month also dented the economic recovery.
Though the February unemployment figures are not out yet, White House economic adviser Larry Summers is already lowering expectations and claiming that winter weather is to blame for any posted decline.
In an interview with CNBC, Summers urged the country not to make any judgments about where the economy is headed based on the upcoming statistics.
“Who knows what the next number is going to be. The blizzards that affected much of the country during the last month are likely to distort the statistics, and in past blizzards those statistics have been distorted by 100,000 to 200,000 jobs, so it’s going to be very important … to look past whatever the next figures are to gauge the underlying trends,” he said.
Summers has clearly noted the dismal weekly employment data that’s come out and is bracing for some bad news at the end of the week.
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