Looking at seasonally adjusted data, the current level of job creation, at around 100k per month, is well below its peak seen in mid-2010 and close to the level last seen in August 2009.

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But based on non-seasonally adjusted BLS data and real-time employment indicators, TrimTabs estimates that job growth was 147, 000 jobs.

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To get a separate look I seasonally adjusted the data by hand.

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That is why most people pay attention to the seasonally adjusted number, as this data series is extremely noisy.

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As far as I am aware, once the data are seasonally adjusted there is no reason to think of Jan-Feb as being special inventory wise.

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In August, for example, the raw data (Not Seasonally Adjusted (NSA)) showed the number of jobs fell by 568, 000.

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Mortgage applications complete the set of bad data, with the seasonally adjusted number down 14.4% from a week ago and 2.8% in terms of its 4-week moving average.

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Since headline CAGED is not seasonally adjusted, it only makes sense to compare data across years.

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Separately, data showed Wednesday that housing starts rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 584, 000 in November at the fastest rate since May, and building permits increased at their fastest clip since November 2008.

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U.S. data were also in focus, as initial jobless claims dropped by 35, 000 to a seasonally adjusted 353, 000, which was a larger drop than expected.

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