At this point, I don’t know who to believe. But I notice one state failed to report, or be included.

They haven’t named the state, but I have a hunch. If I was a desperate President from Chicago looking to intentionally fudge things, what better state than my own, where the leadership is friendly to my re-election chances. Just sayin’. We’ll see if I’m correct.

From ZeroHedge.

“Data Massaging Continues: Initial Claims Tumble To 339K Lowest Since 2008, Far Below Lowest Expectation”

“This is just getting stupid. After expectations of a rebound in initial claims from 367K last week (naturally revised higher to 369K), to 370K (with the lowest of all sellside expectations at 355K), the past week mysteriously, yet so very unsurprisingly in the aftermath of the fudged BLS unemployment number, saw claims tumble to a number that is so ridiculous not even CNBC’s Steve Liesman bothered defending it, or 339K. Ironically, not even the Labor Department is defending it: it said that “one large state didn’t report some quarterly figures.” Great, but what was reported was a headline grabbing number that is just stunning for reelection purposes. This was the lowest number since 2008. The only point to have this print? For 2-3 bulletin talking points at the Vice Presidential debate tonight. Everything else is now noise. It is also sad that the US “economy” has devolved to such trivial data fudging on a week by week basis, which makes even the Chinese Department of Truth appear amateurish by comparison. Needless to say, Not Seasonally Adjusted initial claims jumped by 26K to 327K in the past week but who’s counting.”

Read more here

Also, keep this in mind, also from ZeroHedge,

“Wake Up Media, the BLS Has Been Fudging Its Numbers for YEARS”

“Pop Quiz…

How does the US economy add 800K+ jobs during a month in which employment taxes and consumer spending FALL?

Answer: magic! Or actually the BLS lied… again.

It’s truly staggering to see this brazen a lie out in the public. Even by the BLS’s standards (which has been massaging the @#$% out of its jobs data for years) this latest monthly employment number was a stretch.

Of course, no one bothers explaining just how fraudulent the data was, because that would mean questioning the credibility of the BLS. Instead the whole issue becomes one of politics in which the talking head idiots spar about nothing of import, in yet another attempt to distract the masses from the fact that the Government openly lies about inflation, employment, GDP data and just about everything else.”

Read more here

And check out the comment from OC Money Man in the comments, titled “PRESIDENT HOUDINI THE EMPLOYMENT MAGICIAN”

Are the new welfare work requirement rules, changed by Obama, being used to manipulate data by calling welfare recipients employed? Good question.

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UPDATE

So who is the State not reporting? The BLS isn’t saying.

From BusinessInsider

“And from the WSJ:

“However, the report may not be as positive as  the sharp drop indicates. A Labor Department economist said one large state  didn’t report additional quarterly figures as expected, accounting for a  substantial part of the decrease.”

Initially, rumors started circulating that an entire state’s worth of jobless  claims was excluded.

The DoL was not immediately available to comment.

However, CNBC’s  Kelly Evans is reporting that the discrepancy is that “one state did not  process & report its typical seasonal workload” and that a rebound next week  is likely.

Read more here

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UPDATE II

From CNBC

“Here’s what actually happened. The state did report weekly jobless claims but did not process and report its quarterly claims number (when many people have to reapply for benefits for technical reasons as opposed to being newly laid off). As a result, there wasn’t the expected spike in claims that normally happens at the start of the quarter.

It is unclear why that happened or how unusual that is. What is clear is that the expected spike in claims around the start of each quarter was smaller this time than usual. Coupled with the seasonal adjustment (that expected a bigger increase), that pushed down the headline figure.

In other words, the drop of 30,000 last week had more to do with the lack of expected re-filings at the start of the fourth quarter than with any particular improvement in labor market conditions.”

Read more here

They still haven’t identified the state responsible.