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Trimtabs takes a deeper look at the jobs number reported Friday:
 

The BLS applies a “birth/death” adjustment to its results that is nothing more than an educated guess about the number of jobs added or lost from business openings and business closings.  In 2008 and 2009, the BLS’ “birth/death” adjustment added 904,000 and 882,000 jobs, respectively, for a total of 1.79 million.  By way of comparison, in 2006 and 2007, the BLS’ “birth/death” adjustment added 964,000 and 1.13 million jobs, respectively.   We find it highly unlikely that in 2008 and 2009, during the worst recession since the 1930’s, more businesses opened than closed netting 1.79 million jobs.