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NEW YORK (CNNMoney/WIBW) -- There is good news, but there are still serious concerns because only 123,000 of those jobs were full time. Analysis will be found at the bottom of the story and in attached government reports. Officials claim that the U.S. economy added 295,000 jobs in February, which crushed expectations. That beat the estimate from CNNMoney's survey of economists, who predicted 235,000 job gains.

Illinois still lays claim to the worst recession recovery in the nation. According to the BLS household survey, there are still 216,000 fewer Illinoisans working than when the Great Recession began, the worst of any state and one of only 22 states that still have fewer people working than when the recession started. .... The business-establishment survey for the 2008-2014 period shows 114,000 fewer payroll jobs in Illinois than when the recession began, the second-worst record of any state, and one of only 15 states yet to break even on the recession. Only New Jersey is down more payroll jobs....

A record 92,898,000 Americans 16 years and older did not participate in the labor force last month, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The BLS defines people not in the work force as people 16 years and up who are not employed and haven’t “made specific efforts to find employment sometime during the 4-week period ending with the reference week.” The labor force participation rate — or the “The labor force as a percent of the civilian noninstitutional population” — also dipped back down to 62.7 percent, from 62.9 percent in November.

Submitted by Jeffrey Snider, via Alhambra Investment Partners,The juxtaposition could not be more fitting with all that is transpiring at this moment in economic history. On Monday, the headlines were filled with, Black Friday Fizzles as Sales Tumble 11% and ‘Black Friday’ Fades as Weekend Retail Sinks 11%. Then the “employment” report comes out and now the headlines are, More Jobs and Higher Wages: U.S. Recovery Starts to Hit Home and Hiring Surge Gives U.S. Expansion a Lift Into 2015. The problem is one of mutual exclusivity as both narratives are totally inconsistent with each other even when factoring...

Nearly four in 10 Americans, or 92 million, are not in the labor force and now there’s a reason why: They have simply given up and don’t want to work. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the largest group of people not in the labor force are those who don’t want a job, a remarkable statement on the nation’s work ethic. The federal job counter said that 85.9 million adults last month didn’t want a job, or 93 percent of all adults not in the labor force. ... Pew said that 39 percent of 16- to 24-year-olds don’t want...

Tyler Durden 11/10/2014 When it comes to inflation data, there are two parallel sources: the BLS, and ShadowStats' John Williams, who continues to plough through the underlying "data" using pre-pre-pre-revision protocols, and every month reveals a parallel universe in which something shocking is revealed: the truth. Here is his take on the October "weaker but really stronger than expected" jobs numbers. Here is what really happened. From ShadowStats Never Recovered, the Economy Remains in Terrible Shape. The large number of opening headlines in today’s (November 9th) missive reflects various stories, ranging from twisted unemployment data, to an election dominated by...

A field supervisor in the Census Bureau’s Denver region has informed her organization’s higher-ups, the head of the Commerce Department and congressional investigators that she believes economic data collected by her office is being falsified. And this whistleblower — who asked that I not identify her — said her bosses in Denver ignored her warnings even after she provided details of wrongdoing by three different survey takers. The three continued to collect data even after she reported them. ... Census is broken up into six regions. Cheating has already been proven in the Philadelphia region. And with this whistleblower’s letter,...

In yet another turn of events indicative of Obama’s tactics, the Commander-in-Chief has stooped to issuing yet another Executive Order in order to bypass Congress. The order, as so many before it, was in no way a change to the executive branch as it ultimately legalized the BLM’s authority to snatch private land. A press release recently disclosed by U.S. Congressman Rob Bishop shows that he was able to find 14 missing pages from an internal Department of Interior (DOI) that had miraculously disappeared. Those pages revealed the slithering snake that Obama truly is and the lows he’s willing to...

Despite the unemployment rate plummeting, more than 92 million Americans remain out of the labor force. The unemployment rate dropped to 6.3 percent in April from 6.7 percent in March, the lowest it has been since September 2008 when it was 6.1 percent. The sharp drop, though, occurred because the number of people working or seeking work fell. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not count people not looking for a job as unemployed. The bureau noted that the civilian labor force dropped by 806,000 last month, ... The amount (not seasonally adjusted) of Americans not in the labor force...

Environmental groups cringe as some trade unions support oil and gas drilling, pipelines PITTSBURGH (AP) -- After early complaints that out-of-state firms got the most jobs, some local construction trade workers and union members in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia say they're now benefiting in a big way from the Marcellus and Utica Shale oil and gas boom.That vocal support from blue-collar workers complicates efforts by environmentalists to limit the drilling process known as fracking."The shale became a lifesaver and a lifeline for a lot of working families," said Dennis Martire, the mid-Atlantic regional manager for the Laborers' International Union,...

There's a dirty little secret buried in the monthly employment data. It's a secret so dark, so exquisitely threatening to the financial media industry that those who reveal it risk being expunged from the community like magicians revealing their tricks. The National Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 192,000 jobs were added to the economy in March. The unemployment rate stayed flat at 6.7%. The participation rate rose to 63.2%. Now the dirty secret: none of that actually matters very much. 1.The number itself is simply impossible to measure with any accuracy ... 2.The unemployment rate is irrelevant. ... 3.No...

It’s time for the Bureau of Labor Statistics to own up to the fact that the nation’s unemployment statistics have been compromised. Friday’s jobs report should come with a big asterisk detailing all the investigations the BLS knows about. Maybe the BLS thinks it can’t afford to be that honest. But I say it can’t afford not to be — if it wants to maintain the long-term integrity of all its statistics. I’ve been telling you for months about the investigations being conducted by the Inspector General at the Census Bureau concerning the falsification of unemployment and inflation data. Probes...

The seasonally adjusted price index for uncooked ground beef jumped 3.8 percent from January to February, as the average price for a pound of 100-percent ground chuck rose from approximately $3.59 in January to a new record high of $3.73 in February, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The BLS’s seasonally adjusted price index measures the relative change in the price of product from a baseline of 100. From January to February, the price index for uncooked ground beef rose from 248.864 to 258.323, its highest level ever. The 258.323 price index also indicates that...

The economy added a paltry 113,000 jobs last month, well below the estimated 185,000; also a historically paltry number. Yet, right on cue, the unemployment rate magically dropped from 6.7% to 6.6%. Once again, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has dumped thousands from the workforce – roughly 10 million since 2008 – in order to concoct such laughable numbers. These are federal workers, paid by struggling taxpayers, who can’t even give the public an honest answer. How do they know all of these people dropped out of the workforce? Did they ask each one? Are there enough quality jobs for...

Recent jobs data has demonstrated the labor market's resilient return to strength, but the latest initial jobless claims numbers released Thursday paint a different story. Seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims increased 68,000 to 368,000 for the week ended Dec. 7, 22% higher than a revised figure released a week earlier. The four-week moving average jumped 6,000 to 328,750. The increase in new claims for government unemployment benefits has negated recent declines and is higher than expected. According to analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, new claims were forecast to rise a modest 20,000 to 320,000 over the week.

The Labor Department will release its latest unemployment data this Friday. But it won’t put a note in the news release saying that its jobless figures might have been fabricated. So I’ll write the note for the department, which is, understandably, shy about the whole matter. Warning: The unemployment numbers you see in this press release may have been fabricated. In fact, the jobless rate that seems so important to the Federal Reserve, economists, businesses and so many others might have been a joke for years. Use these numbers at your own risk.

While some have argued that the Fed is flying blind, given their endless efforts to convince the market that their actions (or inactions) are now all data-dependent - what happens when that data simply does not exist? As SMRA notes, the official word from the BLS [Bureau of Labor Statistics] is that they are working under the assumption that there will not be a government shutdown and the employment data will be released as scheduled; but what happens if the un-negotiation reaches beyond October 1st? How will our central-planners know what to do? Via Ray Stone of Stone McCarthy, The...

NFP + 169K, Exp. 180K— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 6, 2013

Many were surprised when last month we exposed the divergent lies at the Bureau of Labor Statistics when comparing two otherwise convergent data sets: the monthly all-important Non-Farm Payroll report and the (one month-delayed) JOLTS survey. Specifically, what we showed is that the Net Turnover from JOLTS (Hires less Separations) is now 40% below the trendline of cumulative job additions implied by the Non-Farm Payroll report's Establishment survey which has become the holy grail for both the stock market and the Federal Reserve's tapering ambitions. Following the release of the June JOLTS update, we can report that the divergence within...

The “Help Wanted” sign is out again in America. But it’s not what you think. A report from the newswire Reuters says that massive hiring is in effect for Obamacare with state and federal agencies hiring both directly and issuing grants to community organizations to act as kind of insurance agents, signing up as many people to Obamacare as possible under the law. “State offices that will run insurance exchanges are hiring tens of thousands,” reports Reuters, “either on staff or through outsourcing firms. Federal agencies that are key to implementing the law, such as the Internal Revenue Service, plan...