In an effort to attend Bernanke's NYE party, Dept. of Labor adjusts out 424,000 jobless claims

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In an effort to reward Wall Street manipulators this holiday season and remain in contention for the Bernanke NYE party, the DOL seasonally adjusted out 423,723 Americans filing initial jobless claims month to date. In early December, Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis experienced a significant panic attack given the uptick in "real" initial jobless claims.

Hilda realized this increase in "real" jobless claims would not bode well for Wall Street, the stock market nor Ben Bernanke's mandate of inflating all asset classes. Accepting the fact that she could not massage the actual number of people filing claims and knowing Wall Street ignores core fundamental data, Ms. Solis implemented a bonus program for any staff member that could tweak the seasonal adjustment formula and wipe out at least 1/4 of a million jobless claims in the month.

Madam Secretary was ecstatic with the results of her incentive program, as her crack staff blew past the 1/4 million mark and managed to seasonally eliminate 423,723 Americans filing initial jobless claims through Christmas.

Week Ending        SA        NSA        Diff

12/25/10         388,000   521,834   133,834 (423,723 M-T-D)


12/18/10         422,000    496,935    74,935


12/11/10         423,000    490,276    67,276


12/4/10           438,000    585,678  147,678

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED (SA) DATA
DOL Press Release

In the week ending Dec. 25, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 388,000, a decrease of 34,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 422,000. The 4-week moving average was 414,000, a decrease of 12,500 from the previous week's revised average of 426,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.3 percent for the week ending Dec. 18, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week's unrevised rate of 3.2 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Dec.18 was 4,128,000, an increase of 57,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 4,071,000. The 4-week moving average was 4,120,000, a decrease of 37,250 from the preceding week's revised average of 4,157,250.

UNADJUSTED (NSA) DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 521,834 in the week ending Dec. 25, an increase of 24,879 from the previous week. There were 556,517 initial claims in the comparable week in 2009.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.3 percent during the week ending Dec. 18, unchanged from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 4,095,135, a decrease of 85,886 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 3.9 percent and the volume was 5,088,864.

The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending Dec. 4 was 8,866,924.