States' data offers gloomier view of U.S. employment

By Lisa Lambert

WASHINGTON, May 16 (Reuters) - State-by-state employment figures released on Friday showed much deeper job losses last month than the U.S. government had reported, renewing concerns about the health of the economy.

State data showed the U.S. economy lost 151,000 jobs in April, raising speculation that the federal government will increase its estimate of payroll losses which it reported earlier this month as 20,000.

Economists said the discrepancy was not abnormal and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which released both reports, cautioned against reading too much into the state figures. It noted that totaling the figures from the states can distort the national picture.

"If one wants a clearer picture of what's going on at the national level, you have to look at the national report," a BLS official said.

Sparked by the state figures, speculation rippled through markets on Friday that the April jobs number will be revised lower in the government's next report on non-farm payrolls on June 6.

The April figures released earlier this month were less dire than many economists had expected, and a sharp downward revision would deflate some of the optimism about the resilience of the economy that stemmed from that report.

Alan Ruskin, an economist with RBS Global Banking and Markets, said differences stem from seasonal adjustments to the national data and state data, and do not mean an "inevitable downward revision."

The two sets of numbers often differ, and the average divergence since 1990 has been 93,000 jobs, said Michael Feroli, an economist at JPMorgan.