September Jobs Report Way Below Expectations

[jamesbond]

The U.S. economy created 142,000 jobs in September, a number that missed expectations and could cool expectations that the Federal Reserve will start raising interest rates soon.

Economists had been expecting the report to show 203,000 new jobs, from the downwardly revised 136,000 in August (from the originally reported 173,000).

"Disappointing across the board," said Brad McMillan, chief investment officer at Commonwealth Financial Network. "This is not what the markets were looking for, this is not what pretty much anybody expected."

The labor participation rate plunged to 62.4 percent in September, its lowest since October 1977.

Fed officials have been keeping a close eye on the jobs number for clues about when it would be appropriate to raise interest rates for the first time in more than nine years.

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/10/02/us-nonfa ... -2015.html

[Ghost]

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[OutWest]

Sounds like the jobless recovery is right on track...

Even with automation looming, America could still have a decent employment situation if it was willing to do a few things:

-Get women out of the workplace and return those stolen jobs to men
-Stop outsourcing and return outsourced jobs to America
-Encourage small businesses

That's a pipe-dream of course, but I'm just making the point that it isn't really technology that is destroying employment. It's all about how you organize society. Maybe automation will fully destroy human jobs eventually, but even now society could organize employment properly and solve these problems...if it wanted to, which it doesn't.

As usual, your commentary is lucid, and refreshingly free of crackpot conspiracy drivel. Problems are solvable, but without the will and an intelligent population, it goes downhill fast.