It is perhaps the best known of all of Mark Twain’s quotes – “There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.” It would be hard to find a better illustration of that line than the misuse of unemployment statistics in Twain’s home state of Missouri.

After peaking at 9.6 percent in July of 2009, Missouri’s unemployment rate fell three full percentage points—to 6.6 percent—at the end of 2012. That compares to a 1.7 percentage point decrease in the national unemployment rate.