Several, for example, Zero Hedge and Shadow Government Statistics are pointing out that the BLS is managing the payroll data with revisions and seasonal adjustments to soften the dire nature of the information.  The chart and description below can be found at Naked Capitalism :

Boy, we would like to be able to irrefutable prove to the public that the government was manipulating numbers like these.  What if we took up a collection from the American people to pay a bounty to the BLS employee who could bring us the goods?