A new Bureau of Labor Statistics report shows that there were 665,000 jobs lost in January, before accounting for the seasonal adjustment.

The government said that taking into account the adjustment, 151,000 jobs were created.

A previous version of this story incorrectly compared the two different numbers.



When looking at the unadjusted numbers for January, there were 25,328,000 "foreign born" workers employed, a one-month drop of 98,000.

In January, there were 123,710,000 "native born" men and women employed, a one-month drop of 567,000.

What's the difference between the numbers? Here's what BLS says:

"Seasonal adjustment is a statistical technique that attempts to measure and remove the influences of predictable seasonal patterns to reveal how employment and unemployment change from month to month," it says.

"Over the course of a year, the size of the labor force, the levels of employment and unemployment, and other measures of labor market activity undergo fluctuations due to seasonal events including changes in weather, harvests, major holidays, and school schedules," it added. "Because these seasonal events follow a more or less regular pattern each year, their influence on statistical trends can be eliminated by seasonally adjusting the statistics from month to month. These seasonal adjustments make it easier to observe the cyclical, underlying trend, and other nonseasonal movements in the series."

This story was corrected to accurately describe adjusted and unadjusted jobs data.

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com.