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Article snippet: As a candidate, President Trump repeatedly questioned the validity of the Labor Department’s jobs reports. Now it is his administration that is releasing the monthly estimates. No matter who is in the White House, however, civil servants in the Labor Department collect and analyze data the same way. Here are the basic ground rules. The Labor Department releases its employment report on the first Friday of the following month (or occasionally, the second Friday) at 8:30 a.m. The initial monthly estimates are based on separate surveys, and the estimate of jobs added or lost is revised twice in subsequent months. Unemployment can be defined several ways, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes alternative measures. The “official” unemployment rate, and the one most frequently cited, is the percentage of the adult civilian labor force without a job and actively searching for one. Whether someone receives government benefits like unemployment insurance is irrelevant. This measure is known as U-3. The broadest one, which includes both discouraged and underemployed workers, tends to rise and fall with the official rate but is always larger. This measure is known as U-6. The data also provide a window into how specific demographic groups and industries are faring from month to month. (The monthly report does not, however, include a breakdown by state.) Like all statistical measurements, the figures can be both honest and imprecise — a best estimate given the availab... Link to the full article to read more