Total Nonfarm Payroll Employment Drops 33,000 in September

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States Department of Labor, the United States posted its first job losses of President Trump's time in office in September.

According to the BLS, the nation lost 33,000 jobs in September, though the national unemployment rate declined to 4.2%.

The job losses, however, were due to Hurricanes Irma and Harvey, which both had a negative impact on hiring in the month of September.

-

How did the economy lose jobs in September while the unemployment rate went down? Let's take a look.

According to the BLS, the total number of employed rose to 154,345,000 in September, up from 153,439,000 the month before. This resulted in the labor force participation rate rising from 62.9% to 63.1%.

The number of unemployed, on the other hand, dropped by 301,000 to 6,801,000 from 7,132,000.

When you divide the total number of unemployed (6,801,000) by the total civilian labor force (161,146,000), you get an unemployment rate of 4.2%, down 0.2% from the month before.

So, while the headline number of -33,000 total nonfarm payroll jobs looked bad, the actual numbers told a different story. Economists expect that the nation will go back to adding jobs in October.

-

An unemployment rate in the low 4% range is more or less full employment, which will likely add more ammunition to the argument that the Fed needs to raise rates again soon. The economy has absorbed multiple rate increases already, and there is still a ways to go to fully normalize interest rates in the United States.

Source: BLS.gov

Filed under: General Knowledge