Jobless Claims: Dept. of Labor Seasonally Adjusts out the entire population of ND plus 1/2 of WY

January 14, 2011

The Department of Laughter Labor has done their part to keep the stock market rally alive. Since 12/4/10, Hilda Solis and her crack staff successfully seasonally adjusted out 919,000 Americans filing initial jobless claims. Madam Secretary knows all too well that the U.S. stock market pundits only pay attention to seasonally adjusted data.

During the six weekly reporting periods from 12/4/10 through 1/8/11, the Dept. of Labor seasonally adjusted out the equivalent of the entire population of North Dakota plus 1/2 of the population of Wyoming. During this same period Hilda would have you believe the U.S. actually added 103,000 jobs during December.

Ms. Solis's December non-farm payroll report states the U.S. workforce is 153.7 million and no one believe 919,000 Americans simply seasonally adjusted out of the headline number has no impact on our "real life" economy? Nearly 1 million more filing unemployment claims will have no effect on mortgage payment delinquencies, retail sales or food stamp demand?

Our middle class is not only evaporating,

the Department of Labor disavows our existence.

Welcome to the Seasonally Adjusted Employment Recovery.

Week Ending           SA           NSA           Diff
1/8/11                 445,000     770,413   325,413
1/1/11                 409,000     578,727   168,727
12/25/10              391,000    525,710   134,710
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  919,352 (153,225 ave. per week)