The unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 5.1%.
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The unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.1%, though more people dropped out of the labor force.
On a positive note, the health care industry added 34,000 jobs, which was close to its monthly average of 38,000.
Unexpectedly weak job creation in the American economy in September prompted traders to dampen expectations of an imminent Federal Reserve interest rate rise and stoked fears that troubles in the global financial markets are having an impact on the US. But the takeaway isn’t a faltering economy, it’s that we’ve seen growth slow before and the underlying strength in consumer spending is likely to continue to push growth at about the 2 percent pace we’ve seen throughout the six years of the expansion. “This is more than enough to keep the Fed on the sidelines in October”. Pushing stocks down last quarter was the uncertainty surrounding the Fed’s rate-hike timetable, as well as the fallout from slowing economic growth in China and the resulting selloff in commodities and emerging markets.
Friday’s report, however, is unlikely to produce panic at the Fed. While the unemployment rate may be low, this in part due to the lowest labor force participation rate since 1977.
The dramatic decline in job growth over the Summer months suggest the economy is teetering on the edge of a contraction. Construction employment rose by 8,000, less than half its 17,000 average over the past year. One reason is that the economy was still playing catch-up in 2014 after the job hemorrhage during the recession. September also marked the 60th consecutive month of job growth, the longest stretch on record. Average wages dropped by 1 cent, to $25.09 hourly.
Finally, the national labor-force participation rate declined to 62.4 percent in September from 62.6 percent in each of the last three months.
Yellen has signaled that the elevated number of these workers points to hidden slack in the labor market that isn’t captured by the jobless rate.
Private-sector payrolls grew by just 118,000, with the government accounting for the rest of the gains. However, companies with 500-999 employees lost 3,000 jobs.
Employment in professional and business services continued to trend up in September (+31,000).
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Economists had anticipated an increase 201,000. That helped drive down a broader measure of underemployment, known as U-6, to 10 percent in September – the lowest since May 2008.
