Someone Is Lying About The Manufacturing Economy -- But Who?

AP

Well, not necessarily lying, but wrong, you see...

There was a lot to dislike about this morning's November Jobs Report, but one thing that really stuck out like a sore thumb was the weakness on manufacturing. Goldman's Jan Hatzius was particularly surprised by this.

And the reason it's so weird is that we've got a string of good data on the manufacturing/manufacturing jobs front.

A handfull from recent weeks:

• In mid-November, the Philly Fed came in ridiculously strong.
• Last week the Dallas Fed number was great.
• The Chicago PMI crushed expectations, with strong growth in hiring.
• November manufacturing ISM was decent.

Other numbers on the jobs front were also positive in November, including the weekly initial claims, the November ADP, and the NFIB Small Biz index (according to CNBC earlier).

So, what explains the difference? And you can't say the government lies, because several of these are government reports.