Here, along with the Wall Street forecasts, are the results that were released at 8:30am:

May 06 Non-farm Payrolls Forecast (Range: 150,000 to 250,000) Consensus: 180,000
Actual: +75,000

May 06 Unemployment Rate Forecast (Range: 4.6 to 4.8 pct) Consensus: 4.7 pct
Actual: +4.6 pct

May 06 Average Hourly Earnings Forecast (Range: 0.0 to +0.4 pct) Consensus: +0.3 pct
Actual: +0.1 pct

Not only is this a spectacular report for a rally in equities and bonds, it's a clear sign that the Fed will pause this month. Ergo, just as I indicated in an earlier blog, the precious metals will boom from today through to the FOMC meeting June 29 " after which they will zoom even more if the Fed actually does pause.

We all take these estimates with a grain of salt. Economic statistics are the playground of professors and politicians. Traders zero in not on the data as much as how people interpret it.

Is the data accurate? You decide. Here is a lead paragraph of today's report. Remember this is the Labor Dept speaking, which is the Administration. Today the White House will be crowing, but leaders of the Black and Hispanic communities will be shaking their heads in disbelief. They know the reality.

"In May, the jobless rates for the major worker groups--adult men (4.2 per-cent), adult women (4.1 percent), teenagers (14.0 percent), whites (4.1 per-cent), blacks (8.9 percent), and Hispanics (5.0 percent)--showed little or no change over the month."

As I see it, this report is an insult to society. We need reports that we can trust.

In closing, however, I'll ask the serious question I put in the earlier article headline: "Are we headed for recession?"