WASHINGTON — September employment data were another recession-like report, marking the ninth month of payroll declines with no apparent effects from the bad weather or strikes.
September payrolls printed down 159,000 and August-July jobs revisions totaled just plus-4,000. Hurricanes probably had no effect on the payroll count or unemployment rate, officials said. (Workers would have had to be unemployed for the entire measurement period, and were not). The Boeing Corp. strike also happened too late to be counted — the change in strikers was plus-4,000 for a small add to payrolls.
The preliminary benchmark revision to payrolls is a mere down 21,000. This will lower the monthly payroll count in the January data by about 2,000 per period. The January report is released in early February.
The civilian unemployment rate remains high at 6.1%, up 1.4 points on the year. The rate for adult women slipped after surging in August, but at 5.5% remains elevated.
Payroll composition was as expected, similar to prior months’ composition: manufacturing posted a 35,000 loss, construction fell 77,000, retail dropped 40,100, finance declined 17,000, leisure slid 17,000, transportation slipped 16,100, and temporary help decreased 24,000. Health care jobs rose 16,600 and government was up 9,000. The one-month diffusion index was 38.1%.
Bad-weather effects might have been seen in moderating hours or wages. Average hourly earnings posted up 0.2% for a 3.4% rise over the year, mainly reflecting drops in transportation wages. Hours edged lower, perhaps also a weather effect; this will cut production and incomes for the month.
— Market News International
