Nonfarm Payroll Surprise: U.S. Added 103K Jobs in September
October 7, 2011
Here are key facts from the "Big Kahuna" of economic data. The Labor Department reported that Nonfarm Payrolls, which is one of the most closely followed gauges regarding the state of the economy at the present time, gained 103,000 in the month of September. This was well above the consensus estimates for an increase of 60,000 and August’s revised total of 57K (revised upward from unchanged).
The August and July totals were revised higher by a total of 99K.
The private sector (aka the household survey) showed gains of 137K jobs, which was also above the estimates. However, the manufacturing sector lost 13,000 jobs last month.
While the NFP (nonfarm payroll) number was a pleasant surprise, the bottom line on the jobs front is that unemployment remains at elevated levels and is not improving. The Labor Dept. reported that the nation’s Unemployment Rate held steady at 9.1%, which was in line with the expectations for a reading of 9.1%.
The total number of Americans that were unemployed held steady last month at 14 million. Using this number, a more all-encompassing non-adjusted approach to calculating the unemployment rate rose to 16.5% of the nation’s population.
Average hourly earnings were up +0.2% on a month-over-month basis while weekly hours were unchanged at 34.2.
The biggest factor in the Nonfarm Payroll number was the return of 45,000 striking workers at Verizon last month. If one removes that number from the mix, the report was about in line with consensus.
Although this report was better than expected, the unemployment rate continues to be at historically high levels and has shown little improvement over the past year.
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