Last Friday, the Labor Department said 268,000 new jobs were created in the U.S. during January. But if you look closer, the government's statistics really showed growth that was even better.

Washington decided to reduce its so-called "bias factor" statistical lie by 50,000 jobs last month. Those are the jobs Washington believes - but can't prove - are being created at small companies. So if this bias factor hadn't been arbitrarily changed, job growth would have been a very robust 318,000.

Again, the question: What recession is everyone worrying about? Job growth is still booming.

Here's more proof: If the U.S. continues to have the same kind of growth we had in January, we'll end this year with 3.8 million new jobs. That will put the Bush administration on track to create more than 15 million jobs during the next four years - more than Bill Clinton could claim at the end of his term as president.

We should be singing "Happy Days Are [Still] Here Again," not frowning. But what, you may be asking, about all the companies that are laying people off? Could that be an illusion? A media conspiracy to make people unhappy?

OK, here's the real point of this column, in case I haven't bludgeoned you hard enough with my sarcasm: The government really doesn't know what's happening in the labor market. As this column has been saying for years, the Labor Department's economic statistics - inflation figures as well as employment data - are not to be trusted.

The irony is that Wall Street probably agrees with me right now as vehemently as it disagreed during the whole Clinton administration. Back then Wall Street needed to prove the economy was healthy; now it needs to believe job growth is so bad the Federal Reserve will have to cut interest rates again and again and again.

Those Labor Department figures on Friday weren't very convenient for investors.

Analysts pointed out that the unemployment rate - which rose two-tenths of a percent - was the real figure that should be watched.

One brokerage firm quickly put out a memo to clients saying, "The employment data that [were] released this morning may be somewhat confusing," and went on to excuse the strong job growth as a seasonal aberration.

But the financial markets just weren't buying it. As I've said in previous columns, the markets have been pushing interest rates higher ever since the Fed first tried to reduce borrowing costs in early January.

Rates cooperated for two days last week after the second cut by the Fed, pushing borrowing costs about halfway back down to where they'd been in December.

Then came Friday's numbers. The real story was in bonds, where interest rates shot back up to where they'd been before Alan Greenspan's panicky two rate cuts.

For all the publicity, the Federal Reserve's actions this last month have had no effect on your ability to borrow money more cheaply.

Forget the headlines. Mortgage rates are higher now than they were four weeks ago, and after Friday they're likely to move higher.

For what it's worth, here's what I believe is happening to the economy: It is slowing rapidly. Without the stock market bubble, consumers are in danger of being less confident than they've been in decades. And inflation is still a problem because of high energy prices, leading to what anyone old enough can remember as "stagflation."

Washington, however, doesn't have a clue.