Benefits claims for two weeks ago were 472,000, down 2,000 from the week before. Some 39 economist gathered information necessary for making a prediction for this past week's new claims and came up with as low as 470,000 and as high as 486,00.
Well, the new number reported was 451,00, much lower than expected. We did not report this yesterday -- there was no reason to believe the report; nothing in the various summaries was predictive of such a positive downturn.
Turns out, we were given a bit of a confirmation: today we learn that the number was a made up number. Because of the the Labor Day Weekend, 9 states of the Union, did not report so their figures were estimated by the states themselves. The 9 include: Illinois, Idaho, Hawaii, Oklahoma, Michigan, and Washington. California and Virginia and Washington D.C.
It is not known why the Government's release was not accompanied by a caveat of some sort.
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