Economists Can't Find the Silver Lining in Today's Jobs Report

By Victoria Stilwell
Benchmark
October 2, 2015 — 11:00 AM EDT

When the U.S. jobs report is released each month, there's typically enough nuance to offer something for everyone — the good and the bad. Today proved to be a feast for the bears.

"When you look through all the details of the data, there just isn't anything good to hang your hat on," said Thomas Simons, a money-market economist at Jefferies LLC in New York. "It's been years since we've seen such an unambiguously bad report."

Silver linings were tough to come by in the September jobs data. Payrolls came in at a much-weaker-than-forecast 142,000, while August and July figures were revised down. Wage growth was nonexistent for the month, with average hourly earnings actually falling by a penny on average.

The softness in manufacturing endured, with factory payrolls falling by 9,000 when they were expected to show no change. With dollar appreciation and sluggish overseas growth providing headwinds, it was the biggest back-to-back decline since 2010.



Even service industries, which make up the lion's share of the economy and are more shielded from global weakness, seem to have shifted into a lower gear. Payroll growth there has slowed for four straight months, the longest such streak since 2001.



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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-02/economists-can-t-find-the-silver-lining-in-today-s-jobs-report