Reply #117: Not the benefits themselves, but the unemployment rates reported by states and local entities

[No Elephants]

figure into the BLS's calculations and those applying for/collecting unemployment benefits probably weigh heavily in the reports from state and local entities.

Looking at what the BLS actually does use to arrive at its numbers makes it fairly clear that there is room for a lot of bs in the figures anyway, so I am not sure why we treat small deviations as significant.

http://www.bls.gov/bls/unemployment.htm

See also

"Some people think that to get these figures on unemployment, the Government uses the number of persons filing claims for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits under State or Federal Government programs. But some people are still jobless when their benefits run out, and many more are not eligible at all or delay or never apply for benefits. So, quite clearly, UI information cannot be used as a source for complete information on the number of unemployed."

http://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm#why

"complete," of course, being the key word, hence my bolding. Put another way, the BLS does use that unemployment benefit claim info, along with other info.