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December 2, 2005

U.S. November Jobs Report, Fri, Dec. 2, 2005, 7:30 AM

As you know, I think the U.S. Jobs Report is both an important one, and one that has serious weaknesses. If you enter the term Jobs Report" into the search bar on my website, you will see that I write about it often.

I always suggest that readers go to Econoday/Haver Analytics, which publishes a helpful set of charts as well as independent commentary that beats the heck out of anything I see on Financial Entertainment TV.

But always, I recognize the value of reading the line-item details (Table A) of the government data. I do that and then compare my objective assessment of the data to what I hear from the pundits on CBNC (Spin City").

The important point is to (i) get a handle on the spin, (ii) watch the bump or drop in the market that results when sheep are being herded, any which way as long as the herd moves, and (iii) prepare yourself to join in the fleecing of the lambs.

You do the latter of course by selling into strength (built on the stories generated by Spin City) and buying into weakness (built on the stories generated by Spin City).

You see, does it really matter to you or me that government statisticians produce a set of caveat-riddled summaries called the Jobs Report, on the first Friday every month, where the headline number is 150,000 or 200,000? The reported estimate number will be adjusted later anyway, and even that number will be a dubious one.

The monthly U.S.Jobs number does matter to Spin Doctors like Kudlow and Liesman at CNBC, and therein lies my interest. You see, these people help me trade " just not in the way they'd like.

But then, I trade to make money.

Posted by Posted by Bill Cara on December 2, 2005 07:30:27 AM | Category: Economics