[newfreep]

Exactly! How can the rate go down when we have increasing number of new jobless claims?

It appears the books are being kept by the IPCC to insure a high level of accuracy.

[mmichaels1970]

How can the rate go down when we have increasing number of new jobless claims?

The way I understand it, the number of jobless claims only tells you how many people were let go. Not how many people were hired. For example, if in November 20,000 people were let go and 10,000 other people found new work (or gave up looking, or dropped off of the unemployment rolls), the unemployment rate would go up (net loss of 10k jobs). However, then in December if 30,000 more people were let go, but 40,000 other people found work (or gave up looking), the unemployment rate would go down, even though claims increased by 10,000 (net gain of 10k jobs).

That said, the numbers still seem very "cooked" to me. I think the "gave up looking" part is a very bad and underreported part of the equation.