[Rearden]

Originally Posted by Martin Smith

If Blogger Mark says it's true, it must be

That's why I referred to it as a data point.

But since you brought it up, "Blogger Mark" is a professor of economics and finance at University of Michigan, Flint. The source of his data is here:

http://chryslerlabortalks07.com/Economic_Data.rtf

and

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ecec.pdf