MNI is taking issue with the characterization of the DOL comments about the drop in jobless claims being due to one state.
We believe that a wire misinterpreted the statement. Some believe the spokesman said that one state accounted for most of the drop in claims. But that is not what we heard. The spokesman actually said one state had a drop in claims while the others had the ‘usual’ rise at the start of the qtr, not implying anything about the magnitude of the drop.
They also note that officials wouldn’t have said there were no special factors if one large state had dropped extremely.
On the whole, I have to say there there has certainly been a government communication SNAFU here.
