Census struggling to hit 90 percent mark

The Census Bureau continues to have trouble completing 90 percent of its monthly household surveys — the Q&As used to determine the nation’s monthly unemployment rate.

The reason? Now that they are being watched closely by an Inspector General, Congress and me, most of the regions seem reluctant to falsify the surveys.

Under its deal with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census has to get a 90 percent success rate in each of its regions.

For Friday’s jobs report, Census’ Denver region hit 88.68 percent, New York 84.30 percent, Los Angeles 89.74 percent, and Philadelphia 88.13 percent, sources tell me. They used to hit the 90 percent mark.

Philly is where cheating was detected — and ignored — back in 2010. Within that region, the success rate in the Washington Metro area, where the surveys were being fudged, the rate is just 81 percent. Some regions did hit the 90 percent mark.

Experts expect the jobless rate for April to be 6.6 percent, down from 6.7 percent in March. But the fabrication of these numbers makes these figures worthless.

The Labor Department had no comment. I don’t even bother anymore trying to get Census to comment.