Nine States Did Not File Initial Claims Data Due To Labor Day, Hundreds Of Thousands Of Estimates

zero hedge ^ | 09/09/2010 | Tyler Durden

[george76]

The BLS has announced that as a result of the Labor Day weekend, 9 states (among which the biggest one California) did not report initial claims data to the bean counters, so instead the government had to "estimate" what the data would have been: yep, estimate, what the data was in these nine states.

Official data is now made up on the fly. This US economic data reporting has just entered the twilight zone. Also, when the data is officially made up, it is not that difficult to get data that is "better than expected." The full list of states is: DC, Illinois, Idaho, Hawaii, Oklahoma, Michigan, and Washington. California and Virginia estimated themselves.

[george76]

full title ...

Nine States Did Not File Initial Claims Data Due To Labor Day, Hundreds Of Thousands Of Estimates In Data "Beat"

[Lurker]

Expect that next week this weeks numbers will be unexpectedly revised in an unexpected upwards direction.

[DManA]

Friedman once said he’d abolish all government statistic keeping. They just use the data to support anti-market policies.

[Zeppelin]

Expect that next week this weeks numbers will be unexpectedly revised in an unexpected upwards direction.

...buried on page 27 of the Times.

[george76]

Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzlG28B-R8Y

41 states worse than expected, and the missing 9 boom to the upside.

ht comments

[blam]

Doubts Spread About Jobless Data, As Government Admits To Estimating Claims In Several States

[BenLurkin]

bttt

[DrC]

The missing states account for 1/4 of the U.S. population.

[I still care]

Maybe this is why the Dems are so somber this week. They know the real numbers, when they come out, are killers.

Just a thought.

[JustSurrounded]

Kind of reminds me of when VPGore proposed to count 90% of the population in the census and estimate the other 10%.

[Freedom56v2]

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.” — Mark Twain

[colinhester]

“Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.”

Never heard that one. Love it!!!

[februus]

Expect a “rousing” speech next week in a labor hall filled with union skinjobs lined up together like daisies in a flowerbox. Expect the MSM to report how Obama is back, full of “indignation” and laying on the pancake makeup with a dozen trowels in an effort to keep the dead man walking along, relatively less flyblown than the day before.

[kevslisababy]

In a shameful way it doesn’t really even matter. Do we believe ANYTHING from this administration or the media anymore???

I don’t.

[Oatka]

That article probably fathered this happy one on Yahoo Hopes rise as jobless claims fall, trade gap eases

[NonValueAdded]

Well, this situation is understandable but the real proof will be when the revision takes place after all the data are received. Let’s see how much integrity there is is the estimating process.

[null and void]

Even at their best, "official" statistics deliberately ignore long term unemployed, once your unemployment benefits expire you become a U-6, a so called discouraged worker who is no longer in the job market, and therefore doesn't count as unemployed!

[italianquaker]

Ahh the ‘hockey stick”

[Anti-Bubba182]

That would make the administration look even worse.

[Iron Munro]

Yes, it will be: