[RWR8189]

This is where I get my number from.

National Employment, Hours and Earnings

Series Id:     CES0000000001 Seasonally Adjusted Super Sector:  Total nonfarm Industry:      Total nonfarm NAICS Code:    N/A Data Type:     ALL EMPLOYEES, THOUSANDS
Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
2001	132388	132492	132507	132236	132237	132087	131972	131831	131564	131203	130871	130659
2002	130494	130404	130447	130379	130381	130406	130295	130306	130259	130342	130305	130096
2003	130190	130031	129921	129901	129873	129859	129814	129789	129856	129944	130027	130035
2004	130194	130277	130630	130954	131162	131258	131331(p)	131475(p)

131,475,000-132,388,000= -913,000

[AFPhys]

From: http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?bls

These are the Total employment numbers. This includes not only the survey of businesses, but people like many I know who are self employed - engaging in the increasing number of jobs such as designing web pages, manning phones for web sites, or operating their own CNC milling machines and circuit board copper etching for local businesses who only want onesies and twosies of a product, not a manufacturing run.

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Series Id:           LNS12000000 Seasonal Adjusted Series title:        (Seas) Employment Level Labor force status:  Employed Type of data:        Number in thousands Age:                 16 years and over
Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
1994	121966	122086	121930	122290	122864	122634	122706	123342	123687	124112	124516	124721
1995	124663	124928	124955	124945	124421	124522	124816	124852	125133	125388	125188	125088
1996	125125	125639	125862	125994	126244	126602	126947	127172	127536	127890	127771	127860
1997	128298	128298	128891	129143	129464	129412	129822	130010	130019	130179	130653	130679
1998	130726	130807	130814	131209	131325	131244	131329	131390	131986	131999	132280	132602
1999	133027	132856	132947	132955	133311	133378	133414	133591	133707	133993	134309	134523
2000	136561(1)	136599	136668	137264	136611	136923	136516	136701	136908	137124	137316	137632
2001	137790	137581	137738	137275	137063	136842	137091	136314	136869	136447	136234	136078
2002	135715	136362	136106	136096	136505	136353	136478	136811	137337	137079	136545	136459
2003	137447(1)	137318	137300	137578	137505	137673	137604	137693	137644	138095	138533	138479
2004	138566(1)	138301	138298	138576	138772	139031	139660	139681
1 : Data affected by changes in population controls in January 2000, January 2003 and January 2004.

Notice that this indicates that over four million people more are employed than were employed in 2001. Yes, the statistical fluctuations are greater month-to-month, but the aggregate/ average figures are reliable.
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