At the end of July, the BLS showed a 7.4% unemployment rate, compared to Gallup's 7.8%. Again, a difference not worthy of note. But Gallup's upward trend to almost 9% in just the last three weeks is alarming, especially because this is not a poll with a history of wild swings due to statistical anomalies. Gallup's sample size is a massive 30,000 adults and the rolling average is taken over a full 30 day period.
Gallup also shows an alarming increase in the number of underemployed (those with some work seeking more). During the same 30-day period, that number has jumped from 17.1% to 17.9%.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) uses a poll with twice as many respondents, or 60,000 people. Also, Gallup's poll is not seasonally adjusted. I suspect the real number is somewhere in between Gallup and the BLS. Let's see what happens in the next couple of months.
I was just going to say - employment in the summer drops for a number of professions and businesses. It seems an odd time to do a study, unless they're comparing it to the exact same time in other years.