Investigative journalism is rapidly dwindling at all the major news outlets due to cost pressures, but it shouldn't take too much investigation to uncover the employment report released every month by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is arguably the government's single most important release of economic data. It tells how many people have jobs, how many are looking for work, the industries in which they work, and the how much they get paid. For this reason, the major papers have always devoted a full article, often on the front page, to reporting on the release. Apparently this is no longer the policy at the Post. The employment report got mentioned in three paragraphs of a business section article on Friday's market meltdown. Hopefully this is just due to reporters' vacation schedules and does not indicate the Post's intention to stop giving serious coverage to the employment report.
--Dean Baker
