Misclassification error' made the May unemployment rate look better than it is

Gold last traded at $1,703 an ounce. Silver at $17.89 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices rose Monday on bargain-hunting and a weaker dollar. U.S. stocks rose amid optimism over the economy reopening.

WASHINGTON POST--- "When the U.S. government's official jobs report for May came out on Friday, it included a note at the bottom saying there had been a major 'error' indicating that the unemployment rate likely should be higher than the widely reported 13.3 percent rate. The special note said that if this 'misclassification error' had not occurred, the 'overall unemployment rate would have been about 3 percentage points higher than reported,' meaning the unemployment rate would be about 16.3 percent for May. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, the agency that puts out the monthly jobs reports, said it was working to fix the problem. 'BLS and the Census Bureau are investigating why this misclassification error continues to occur and are taking additional steps to address the issue,' said a note at the bottom of the Bureau of Labor Statistics report....The BLS admitted that some people who should have been classified as 'temporarily unemployed' during the shutdown were instead misclassified as employed but 'absent' from work for 'other reasons.'....Economists said the big takeaway is that it's hard to collect real-time data during a pandemic and that while the unemployment rate remains high - likely more than 16 percent - it has declined a little from April....Economists wish people would focus on the fact that 21 million Americans are currently unemployed and over 2 million have permanently lost their jobs."