McDonald's Created Half of Jobs in May?

Did McDonald's really create half of all of the new jobs in May?


Apparently this has been passed around and posted all over the Internet.


It's not true, and I debunk this rumor and explain it here:


McDonald's did not create half of all new jobs in May because there were 680,000 new jobs in May, not 54,000.

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Did McDonald's Create Half of the New Jobs in May?

I've heard that the 54,000 new jobs are mostly the McDonald jobs that we heard about last month.  Is that true?


No!


There were actually 680,000 new jobs created in May 2011 if you look at the "raw" numbers not adjusted for seasonal variation.  (Explanation below.) 

******************************** 

Just published:

 What was the Unemployment Rate When Obama Took Office? (Update for August) 

How Many Jobs Has Obama Created or Lost? (August update).

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Now, McDonald's did have a hiring day in April and hired 62,000 people from the million applications that they received. 


It is unknown exactly how many of the 62,000 were onboard and officially employed by McDonald's during the week of May 12th, the week used for monthly employment reporting.  (As the hiring day was after the week of April 12th, there was absolutely no effect on the April employment numbers.) 


But even if all 62,000 were hired and onboard during the week of May 12th, they were still less than 10% of the 680,000 total new jobs created in May 2011.  So we're back to the "seasonally adjusted stuff".


What's this "Seasonally adjusted effect"?