Treasury's Snow: US job count missing self-employed
WASHINGTON, March 25 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow on Thursday took his defense of the Bush administration's economic record to a tough audience: economists.
Snow, in prepared remarks to be delivered to a gathering of the National Association of Business Economics, pointed to differences between the Labor Department's monthly surveys of household employment and company payrolls to suggest the patchy job market may not be as bad as it seems.
While most analysts believe the survey of firms' payrolls is the more accurate of the two gauges, Snow said it leaves out "an increasingly significant" category: self-employed workers.
"I think it's a positive trend ... one that focuses on self-reliance and innovation ... it's a wonderful way to be employed, we just need to measure it better," he said.
Snow also said legal reform would lift a drag on the economy and warned against the temptation "to pull down the shades against business with other countries."
"We need to stay engaged with the rest of the world, to keep those markets opened to our farmers, our service industry and our manufacturers," he said.
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