Hmm, I’m not seeing what you are, unless you mean ignore all data from Apr 2020 to Dec 2021. It took almost 2 full years for unemployment to return to the pre-covid norm. The spike is immediate in apr 2020, then it falls quickly for 6 months to Dec 2020, and then falls more slowly for the next year. That lump from Dec 2020 to Dec 2021 is very asymmetric, compared to Mar 2020 and the preceding year. I’d think even a year-wide smoothing window would capture that asymmetry.
https://x.com/jodavaho/status/2081416737883353417?s=20
(shame x is the easist way I have to post two images quickly)
dots seem to fit bls pretty well. Just to bound the effect of the spike, that is a +10% jump, so over a 3 year window it would produce a +3% bump. If they do a backwards only, it'd lag by up to 3 years. So, it's plausible/feasible, maybe not definitive.