Meltdown 101: Which Jobs Reports Tell Full Story?

Q: Why don't I hear more about private-sector jobs reports?

A: Investors pay close attention to these reports, like the ADP National Employment Report, which tend to be released before the government reports and can give stock traders a leg up when betting on economic trends. But academics shy away from them in part because companies don't fully reveal their study methodology. (ADP's report, for one, is based on payroll data from about 400,000 of the company's data service clients.)

Government reports, on the other hand, have been used for decades and their methodology is well known.

Q: So which reports should I pay attention to?

A: You can't go wrong by watching the monthly unemployment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, said Arindrajit Dube, an economist with the Center for Labor Research and Education at the University of California at Berkeley.

The unemployment report is the best gauge of the labor market because it measures people's intentions — such as whether they've given up on the job hunt or decided to return to school — in a way payroll figures or jobless claims cannot.