Is this not the most useless economic number released every month? Today the Labor Department reported that 138,000 thousand jobs were added in April, this fell well short of the 200,000 that was forecast. Would anyone be even remotely surprised if next month this number was revised upwards by 40%. If it had come in at 250,000 would any be surprised if next month they revised it lower to 190,000? This is a major market moving number. If they can't get it right for an additional 30 days simply report it 30 days later. Just my $.02 Red
Actually, since the number came in much lower than expected, it assuaged the general market for inflation fears from wage inflation due to demand and caused a nice little 100+ point move in the dow. From that perspective, I thought it was a very useful number. However, from a fundamental perspective, there is very little about these numbers these days, unless you use the final #'s and average them (like with a moving average).
Like I said previously. Totally useless number. This one will probably be massively revised next month. If they can't report an accurate number until 30 days later then report it 30 days later.