- The Washington Times - Tuesday, November 19, 2013

U.S. government job numbers were intentionally skewed to paint a brighter economic picture in the lead-up to the 2012 presidential election, a source told the New York Post.

The number manipulation involved several workers with the U.S. Census Bureau, who reportedly kept quiet about the false information that fed into the dramatic August-to-September unemployment drop, from 8.1 percent to 7.8 percent, the unnamed source told the Post.

The source said he would testify to Congress and speak to the Labor Department about what he claimed was falsified data, the Post reported.

The source claimed that two years before President Obama won his re-election campaign, the Census Bureau actually caught one of its workers changing and falsifying jobs’ numbers. But the problem didn’t end; rather, the skewing of statistics only intensified in the months leading up to the election.

The employee who was caught, Julius Buckmon, told the Post that he actually skewed numbers at the behest of his bosses.

The Census Bureau didn’t respond to requests for comment.

• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.

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