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To: StAnDeliver

“The reality is so severe and so ingrained now, that “fiddling” with these numbers is actually working against them, ie the alien’s government is creating alienation against the alien.”

I don’t know what alientation has to do with this, but the seasonally-adjusted payroll data are provided as an estimate of the net jobs created or destroyed in a given month. Economists know that the seasonal adjustments are flawed and the standard errors are wide, but they provide them anyway because this is the easiest way for the public to digest the data.

Year-over-year comparison of non-seasonally-adjusted data is the best way of evaluating payroll trends, but people who are not mathematically or economically astute have difficulty understanding them, hence the BLS publish these seasonally adjusted data and these are the numbers that the media and politcal class types focus on.

Don’t blame the BLS because the seasonal adjustments are often wrong. Rather, just go to their website and get the non-seasonally adjusted data. BTW, the y-o-y comparisons went positive in July for the first time in 27 months. In October, the advance increased to 626,000 jobs or 0.5%, the largest 12-month gain since February 2008. In other words, the employment gains look pretty solid (or at least better) in October with or without seasonal adjustments. So let’s stop the weird conspiracy theories about the government manipulating the data. They provide the raw data to anyone who wonders by on the internet and clicks on it.


12 posted on 11/08/2010 3:58:52 PM PST by irish_links (: ... but only say the word and I shall be healed.)
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To: irish_links

“BTW, the y-o-y comparisons went positive in July for the first time in 27 months.”

Boosted thanks to census and temp jobs.


15 posted on 11/08/2010 6:21:22 PM PST by Qbert
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