The Real Story Behind the Numbers

John R. Lott, Jr. explains that 9.7% number.

There are two ways economists measure the number of jobs, the establishment survey that asks about 370,000 employers how many people they are employing and the household survey that asks about 110,000 people each month whether they are working....

The problem is that the two surveys have reached different estimates, with the household survey showing a significantly greater drop in the number of jobs than the establishment survey. And it turns out that there might be a simple reason for that....     ...the Bureau makes an assumption that the jobs created at new companies is about equal to the jobs lost at companies that go out of business.

Unfortunately, that assumption hasn't worked during the current recession. Firms have been going out of business and news ones haven't sprung up to take their place.

If my snippets are too brief, read the whole thing.