[proudpapa]

Illinois?

Was this the payoff for Obamas Justice department recently buying the mothballed prison in Northern Illinois?

[Eva]

The jobs numbers are put together by the census workers, they can do whatever they want with the methodology. There are no rules, no continuity, the numbers are a meaningless political organizing tool.

[kabar]

The Labor Department factors this trend into its seasonally adjusted figures. But last week, a Labor economist said one "large" state didn't report additional quarterly figures as expected, accounting for a substantial part of the decrease. The official wouldn't disclose which state, but said it would be released with next week's report as usual.

"One omission by one state—you wouldn't think it would be a big deal, but in this case it drove the number down by 10%," said analyst Stephen Stanley with Pierpont Securities.

Economists are speculating the state could be California, the most populous state in the nation.

"It was likely a state with a large population and we suspect that it was California based on the occasional massive swings that have occurred in its claims data in the past," said Daniel Silver, an economist with JPMorgan, JPM +1.17%in a note.

"In short, this reading is worthless in terms of informing on the general economy," Mr. Stanley wrote in a research note.