Unemployment

290K of which census was 66k and Birth Death was 188k. Hurray -the economy added a real 36k in jobs in April. Still, we are curious how the Chairman will not be forced to discuss tightening after this B/D adjustment inspired number (188K in April B/D, 81K in March). And in the meantime, headlines will read Unemployment back to 9.9%, and Underemployment back to 17.1%. Record jittery market bounces than calms down again.

Jan Hatzius, who along with Erik Nielsen, knows what the DOL and the IMF will announce and do about two weeks before the respective agencies do, has come out with his most recent preliminary NFP number. The verdict: +175,000, consisting of 125,000 from the Census. The unemployment rate will remain at 9.7%, unchanged from March's hilarious 9.749% (the gov't just like goldman rounds down the nearest trillion). Still, a bit off from VP Biden's prophecy of half a million jobs created each month "very soon."

A freak leak of the Spanish unemployment number by the National Statistical Institute (INE), the equivalent to the DOL, was captured by Spanish daily ABC.es, according to which for the first time since 1997, the unemployment rate in the country that was notched by S&P today, will surpass 20%. This number was supposed to be under embargo until Friday. According to the temporary leak which was subsequently promptly removed, the number of unemployed in Spain increased from 4.3 million to 4.6 million between the end of 2009 and March 31, 2010. What's worse is that the unemployment among Spain's youth is reaching epidemic proportions: "the unemployment rate for those under 25 years in the first quarter of 2010 was 40.93% and 18.02% in those over 25 years. In the group of 16-19 years, the rate is 59.79% and 13.1% among the unemployed aged 55 and older." Dealing drugs is probably a more lucrative job than working for the government anyway. No taxes either.

The poor are suffering Depression-level unemployment, while the well-off aren't feeling a thing ..

How to read the unemployment numbers in a world where the major media are cheerleading their coverage.

Key data points for March: change in NFP: 162K; of these - Census +48K; Weather ~+100K; Birth/Death +81: Net -67,000. Underemployment increased to 16.9%. In the meantime the dollar is surging, and the 10 Year is approaching 4.00%

Even as the BLS and DOL would like us to believe that the unemployment picture is getting better, we present a chart comparing the initial and continued claims as presented by the Dept. of Labor and compare these to actual government outlays. Even as the two combined series have been declining (offset by increasing much discussed EUCs), the most recent Unemployment Insurance Benefit outlay reported by the Treasury (as of March 30 - there is still one more day of data for March), just hit an all time record high of $15.4 billion.What this means is that in March the average paycheck from Uncle Sam for sitting dong nothing, surged to an all time high of $1,447/month.

What do the January unemployment numbers mean? How about February?

The BLS has released the January state unemployment update: the unemployment rate increased in 30 states, while somehow nonfarm payrolls increased in 31 states. Presumably this is due to an increase in the total labor pool. As reported, "Michigan again recorded the highest unemployment rate among the states, 14.3 percent in January. The states with the next highest rates were Nevada, 13.0 percent; Rhode Island, 12.7 percent; South Carolina, 12.6 percent; and California, 12.5 percent. North Dakota continued to register the lowest jobless rate, 4.2 percent in January, followed by Nebraska and South Dakota, 4.6 and 4.8 percent, respectively. The rates in California and South Carolina set new series highs, as did the rates in three other states: Florida (11.9 percent), Georgia (10.4 percent), and North Carolina (11.1 percent). The rate in the District of Columbia (12.0 percent) also set a new series high. In total, 25 states posted jobless rates significantly lower than the U.S. figure of 9.7 percent, 11 states and the District of Columbia had measurably higher rates, and 14 states had rates that were not appreciably different from that of the nation."

The following very interesting analysis from Goldman focuses on an issue long-discussed on Zero Hedge and elsewhere, namely what happens when those millions in unemployed currently collecting unemployment insurance, finally start to roll off extended and emergency benefits, as terminal benefit exhaustion sets in, even with ongoing governmental unemployment stimulus programs. Goldman's estimate: approximately 400,000 people will no longer have the backdrop of so-called "government jobs" in which workers receive on average $1,200 a month for doing nothing. "If the rate of exhaustion continues at the current pace, this implies over 400,000 workers will exhaust their benefits in some months, even if Congress continues to extend the current, more generous, unemployment program." What this means for the economy is, obviously, nothing good: "Assuming something on the order of 400,000 exhaustions per month, at an average benefit of $1200 per month, this implies roughly $0.5 billion in lost monthly compensation compared with a scenario in which there are no exhaustions. If the relationship between exhaustions and initial claims 16 to 17 months prior (the maximum benefit period in most states) holds constant, the pace of exhaustions is likely to stay elevated for several months, implying several billion dollars in cumulative lost compensation." Couple this with front-loaded tax refunds, also previously discussed on Zero Hedge, and the "consumer-driven" economy in next few months is sure to see a rather substantial shakedown. Absent a dramatic increase in (c)overt Obama unemployment stimulus, is the extend-and-pretend phase of the bear market rally about to end?

With economic optimism back over the U-3 data, which was "surprisingly" not impacted by mid-winter snow (but as Art Cashin says, a horrible number would have been seen as a buying catalyst due to the "non-recurring" nature of snow in February), many seem to have missed that real unemployment, or the BLS' U-6 series actually climbed by 0.3%, to 16.8% from 16.5% in January. Additionally, the Non-Seasonally Adjusted U-6 number was barely changed, and was flat at 17.9%, just a hair away from January's record 18%.

Key highlights from the February report:

• Total Civilian labor force at 153,512, compared to 153,170 in January
• Actual unemployment: 14,871, compared to 14,837 in January
• The pool of available workers at 21,041, 239k increase from January's 20,802
• The Over 20 split of unemployed men/women was 10.0%/8.0%
• The labor force participation rate was 64.8%, compared to 64.7% in January
• Average hourly earnings increased by +0.1% compared to consensus estimate of +0.2%
• Total average hours worked in the private industry at 33.8, down from 33.9 in January; The low was in the Leisure and Hospitality services at 25.7, the high in Mining and Logging at 42.6

It's very hard to tell if this increase in employment is real, a temporary bump from stimulus, or a fiction arising from incorrect assumptions used by the BLS. Here's how to read the numbers.

The January NFP number came in at -20,000, a mere 5k away from Goldman's -25,000 estimate. Consensus was for +15,000. December, as all prior months, saw an expected major downward revision to -150,000 from -85,000. The January Birth/Death adjustment was for -427K from +25K in December. Despite a deterioration in every metric, the unemployment rate dropped from 10.% to 9.7%, even with a consensus at 10.0%. A glitch in the excel model is further corroborated when one considers that the civilian labor force participation rate actually rose in January from 64.6 to 64.7. Yet a number that avoids some of the constant fudging by the BLS, the Non-Seasonally Adjusted number, hit a new recent record: instead of 9.7%, this number was 10.6%, a 0.9% increase from December! The same can be seen in the U-6 data. NSA U-6 is now at a record 18%, even as the seasonally adjusted number declined to 16.5%.

Bloomberg has an excellent interactive analysis on the potential for a near one million count revision upwards of the unemployment numbers. This combined with the work my team and I have put together should lead subscribers to believe that medium term, unemployment can (and probably will) exacerbate the global equity market decline.