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Here are some comments from economists about the September employment data, which showed the U.S. adding 136,000 jobs in the month, and the unemployment rate hitting a 50-year low. Economists polled by MarketWatch had forecast a 150,000 increase.
Read more about the September jobs report from MarketWatch.
• “The U.S. labor market appears to still be on relatively healthy footing despite the downside miss on payrolls for September. The 136,000 jobs created was only marginally below the consensus forecast and there was a large upwards revision to the prior two months (+45,000)…Overall, these data are constructive enough to allow the Fed to skip October in our view, and cut in December.” — Katherine Judge, CIBC Economics.
• “No change to [average hourly earnings] on the month and a substantial deceleration in the year-on-hear measure to 2.9% from 3.2% (slowest YoY since July 2018) are troubling.” — Thomas Simons, Jefferies LLC.
• “With inflation ticking up and wage growth down, buying power is seeing some erosion. The Fed won’t feel compelled to cut rates again later this month based on this report.” — Robert Frick, Navy Federal Credit Union.
• Steven Rattner, who ran the Obama administration’s auto task force, noted the weakness in manufacturing, which lost 2,000 workers in the month.
U.S. stock futures DJIA, +0.59% rose following the release of the data, while Treasury TMUBMUSD10Y, -0.39% yields edged higher.
