June employment data make no sense

NOTE:

I've been writing 

a finance newsletter

since 1977, and have

never seen such strange 

unemployment statistics.

SUMMARY:

On Thursday,

July 2, 2020,

we received 

unemployment

data from two

federal agencies.

that contradicted

each other.

Labor Department :

Announces a record 

31.5 million people 

are receiving 

state and federal 

unemployment 

insurance benefits.

People receiving

unemployment 

checks ought 

to be unemployed

people, right ?

So you'd expect

about 30 million

unemployed people

for the June 2020

employment report.

Not what we were told !

Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Claims only 

17.8 million 

people 

unemployed 

in June, 

down by 

3.2 million 

from May,

and down by

5.3 million 

in two months !

If there are only 

17.8 million people

unemployed, then 

how can 31.5 million

people be receiving

unemployment 

compensation

checks ?

DETAILS:

Bureau of Labor

Statistics (BLS)

is claiming

+4.8 million 

new payroll jobs 

were created in June.

( +4.94 million from the 

Household survey )

and unemployment 

dropped by 3.2 million.

... while the 

Labor Dept.

claims people 

still receiving 

unemployment 

insurance, 

INCREASED 

by +1.3 million, 

since the end

of May !

The Labor 

Department 

reported:

People who 

continued 

to receive

unemployment

compensation 

in the week 

ended June 27, 

under all state 

and federal 

unemployment 

insurance 

programs, 

including the 

new program for gig 

workers, surged by 

+937,810 people, 

to 31.49 million, 

the highest ever !

The number of newly

laid-off people 

who filed their 

initial unemployment 

claims with state 

unemployment 

offices in the week 

ended June 27 

was +1.427 million 

(not seasonally adjusted) 

similar to increases 

in the past two weeks.

For the Pandemic 

Unemployment 

Assistance (PUA), 

which covers 

gig workers: 

839,563 initial claims 

were processed 

by 47 states in the 

week ending June 27.

Three states 

have not started 

processing

these federal

PUA claims: 

  Georgia, 

New Hampshire,

West Virginia. 

12.85 million 

gig workers 

continued 

to receive 

unemployment 

compensation 

under the 

PUA program, 

up by +1.79 million 

from a week earlier. 

Gig workers are 41%

of all the people on state

and federal unemployment 

rolls.