Latest Job Report and a New Low in Unemployment

The latest job report was released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Initial reports, initial only because numbers tend to correct months later, show the United States added 136,000 new jobs.  This also brings our unemployment rates at a new 50 year low, at only 3.5%. 

The biggest gains in employment is in the healthcare sector and professional and business services, adding about 40,000 and 34,000 jobs respectively.  Then came government jobs and leisure and hospitality.  Industries that saw a loss were retail and manufacturing, which was expected with the current recession in manufacturing.  Retail saw a loss of about 11,000 jobs and manufacturing lost about 2,000. 

While hiring continues to grow, this month’s growth was slower than the last few months, some economists are signaling a hiring slowdown.  The initial job gain for September is also lower than what many economists had predicted.

The national unemployment rate dropped to its lowest point since 1969.  Sitting at 3.5%, down from 3.7% from previous reporting, which stayed stagnant for some time. 

Despite the good news of latest jobs report and low unemployment rate, this month showed a slowing of wage increases.  The latest report showed the average earnings only gained about 2.9% from last year. 

Today’s report also showed a correction in job growth over the last couple of months.  July’s gains were revised to 166,000 and August was up 168,000.  Both corrections showed gains of about 45,000 new jobs that were actually placed.  September’s modest numbers combined with the corrected summer gains gives us an average of 156,000 job gains, down significantly from last year. 

The initial reaction from the jobs report boded well for our market.  The Dow, S&P 500, and the Nasdaq have all posted gains.