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What you see in the labor reports are three different measures.

The Weekly Claims data that is cited every Thursday morning tracks the number of new claims for unemployment. The data is provided to the Bureau of Labor Statisdtics (BLS) by each states' labor department. Generally the breakeven point on growth in the labor market is said to be between 375K and 400K.Below that level you generally see improving monthly payroll and unemployment numbers. Above that range and unemployment moves higher. It should be noted that even in a booming economy, there would typicall be 325K-350K new weekly clams.

The monthly payrolls report is based on a survey of approximately 140,000 businesses and government agencies representing approximately 440,000 worksites throughout the United States. Employment is counted by the total number of persons on establishment payrolls employed full-or part-time who received pay for any part of the pay period that includes the 12th day of the month. The headline number that is frequently cited in news reports show the net change in the total payrolls number from the prior month.

Because unemployment insurance records relate only to persons who have applied for such benefits, and since it is impractical to actually count every unemployed person each month, the Government conducts a monthly survey of about 60,000 households to measure the extent of unemployment in the country. The basic concepts involved in identifying the employed and unemployed are: People with jobs are employed. People who are jobless, looking for jobs, and available for work are unemployed. People who are neither employed nor unemployed are not in the labor force. The unemployment rate is the number unemployed divided by the number in the labor force.