Initial Jobless Claims: Can the Dept. of Labor Seasonally Adjust out the entire population of ND

The Department of Laughter Labor has done a superb job keeping the U.S. stock market dream rally alive. Knowing that CNBC, equity analysts and mutual fund managers only care about headline, seasonally adjusted numbers, the Department of Labor successfully seasonally adjusted out 593,000 Americans filing initial jobless claims in the month of December. Hilda Solis works magic with her Seasonally Adjusted Wand (SAW).

With the first full week of 2011 initial jobless claims to be released 1/13/11, can Hilda Solis and her Department of Laughter Labor jesters extend the dream for one more week and seasonally adjust out the equivalent of the entire population of North Dakota? Hilda only needs 1/2 of her December weekly average to wipe out ND. Tune in your favorite financial news at 7:30 am CDT for results.

Week Ending           SA           NSA          Diff
1/1/11                   409,000      577,279   168,279
12/25/10               391,000      525,241   134,241
12/18/10               420,000      495,548     75,548
12/11/10               423,000      490,276     67,276
12/4/10                 438,000      585,678   147,678


Total                  2,081,000   2,674,022    593,022 (118,604 ave.)