Forex news – September employment report disappoints
October 23, 2013 9:08 am
In arguably the most important economic news of every month, the headline number of the number of jobs created in the US during September was less than expected. Specifically, 148 thousand jobs were created against expectations of a gain of 185 thousand.
Revisions to the previous months’ releases were also important, with the downwardly revised July figure showing a particularly weak reading of 89 thousand jobs – the weakest number for more than a year.
On a more positive note, the unemployment rate dropped to 7.2% from August’s 7.3%. It was lowest rate of unemployment of the past 5 years – since November of 2008.
In other statistics of the report, average earnings increased by a moderate 2.1% – slightly higher than the annual rate of inflation
The release of the report was delayed by 18 days due to the shutdown of the US government.
The main conclusion of the report was that the US labor market was not doing as well as expected just before the October government shutdown.
As the shutdown is expected to have hurt the economy, Federal Reserve policymakers are likely to be even more cautious going forward in gradually lifting the monthly monetary injections called Quantitative Easing (QE).
The US economy is continuing to recover but the pace was likely relatively slow during the third quarter, whereas the fourth quarter will be affected by the shutdown – economists are expecting it to take off around 0.5% annualized.
In arguably the most important economic news of every month, the headline number of the number of jobs created in the US during September was less than expected. Specifically, 148 thousand jobs were created against expectations of a gain of 185 thousand.
Revisions to the previous months’ releases were also important, with the downwardly revised July figure showing a particularly weak reading of 89 thousand jobs – the weakest number for more than a year.
On a more positive note, the unemployment rate dropped to 7.2% from August’s 7.3%. It was lowest rate of unemployment of the past 5 years – since November of 2008.
In other statistics of the report, average earnings increased by a moderate 2.1% – slightly higher than the annual rate of inflation
The release of the report was delayed by 18 days due to the shutdown of the US government.
The main conclusion of the report was that the US labor market was not doing as well as expected just before the October government shutdown.
As the shutdown is expected to have hurt the economy, Federal Reserve policymakers are likely to be even more cautious going forward in gradually lifting the monthly monetary injections called Quantitative Easing (QE).
The US economy is continuing to recover but the pace was likely relatively slow during the third quarter, whereas the fourth quarter will be affected by the shutdown – economists are expecting it to take off around 0.5% annualized.
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