Nonfarm payroll down 95,000 on weak state and local governments
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. economy lost 95,000 nonfarm jobs in September as local and state governments shed positions at a faster rate than the private sector was adding.
Nonfarm payrolls fell by 95,000 in September, much larger than the 8,000 decline expected by economists surveyed by MarketWatch and the 57,000 jobs lost in August.
The unemployment rate remained steady at 9.6% as fewer new workers joined the labor market than in the previous month. Economists had expected a slight increase.
Hiring excluding the census and other government, private payrolls rose by 64,000 in September. Private payrolls rose a revised 93,000 in August from the initial estimate of a 67,000 increase.
The private payrolls growth came in weaker than the 85,000 increase expected by economists surveyed by MarketWatch.
The payrolls count in July and August was revised lower by a cumulative 15,000. Payrolls fell a revised 57,000 in July and by 66,000 in August.
There is little in the data to stop further easing measures by the Federal Reserve. Prior to the report, economists had said that a strong U.S. payrolls number was needed to take pressure off the Fed to deliver a second round of quantitative easing.
The unexpected number in the report was the weakness in state and local governments .The government sector lost 159,000 jobs including 77,000 temporary Census workers. Economists had expected the loss of census workers but not 76,000 other government jobs. State and local governments have been aggressively cutting spending in response to budget deficits, and a recently passed law giving aid evidently didn’t make an impact.
The guts of the report had a weak tone.
The average workweek was unchanged and the factory workweek fell.
Average hourly earnings in September were flat and up only 1.7% in the past year.
The government also provided a preliminary estimate of how it expects to revise the labor market when it completes the process in February. According to the department, statisticians will trim total employment by 366,000 for March 2010.
