Karim writes:
Headline near consensus and also very consistent with trend of recent months; but details on soft side
- Headline payrolls -95k; private payrolls +64k; payrolls ex-census workers -20k
- The 83k drop in state and local govt payrolls likely skewed by seasonals related to education (-50k jobs)
- Avg weekly earnings unch and hours worked unch; so personal income will be soft in Sep (though it was strong in prior mths)
- Unemployment rate 9.579% from 9.642%
- Notable swings by sector: construction -52k; manufacturing -22k; leisure/hospitality +18k; Retail +8k
- Median duration of unemployed up from 19.9 to 20.4; U6 measure up from 16.7% to 17.1%
- Diffusion index drops from 54.1 to 49.8 (first month below 50 since January).
Data consistent with moderate growth which is not enough to materially lower unemployment rate and as such, further lowers the bar for more aggressive LSAPs in November.
Census jobs still being lost. State and local cuts will also probably continue.
Also, 65,000 private sector jobs is about 100,000 short of what I’d guess will be the norm with initial and continuing claims now drifting lower.
GDP growing faster than jobs indicates productivity still doing well, which is positive for profits.
Lower interest rates also continuing to support valuations.
Bullard on CNBC shows FOMC still not up to speed on monetary operations.
Hours worked remained the same at 34.2 – I look to this for hiring pressure. Hours usually go up a good amount before serious hiring begins. Every .1 is the equivalent of 300-400k jobs if you work the hours * working population/35 hours per week per person.
That Hours worked stayed the same is discouraging.
agreed but only one month.
“When times get hard and talk turns to spending and budgets, there is one area that gets short shrift: the cost of crime and our enormous criminal justice system. For instance, how much do you think a single murder costs society? According to researchers at Iowa State University, it is a whopping $17.25 million….
(They also calculated that each rape costs $448,532, each robbery $335,733, each aggravated assault $145,379 and each burglary $41,288.)”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/09/opinion/09blow.html?_r=1&ref=charles_m_blow
hoping they don’t then show economies of scale and how doubling crime brings down the cost…
or a that halving crime could deepen the recession….