Jobs Shed in September after Hurricanes Harvey, Irma

The employment situation for mining jobs in the U.S., which includes oil and gas extraction, was relatively unchanged in September, according to data released October 6 from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Total nonfarm employment declined by 33,000 net jobs in September compared with an upwardly revised gain of 169,000 the previous month.

Economists had expected the addition of 80,000 jobs last month, but that was before the effects of Harvey and Irma were known.

The biggest hit to jobs came from a drop of 105,000 at restaurants and bars.

In September, the US economy saw its first monthly loss of jobs in seven years – partly due to Hurricanes Harvey Irma – government statistics showed Friday.

A bright spot in the report was average hourly earnings, which in September jumped sharply higher, rising 0.5% over the prior month and 2.9% over the prior year.

“Low-wage industries like leisure and hospitality recorded large job losses in September, temporarily boosting the overall average wage”, he wrote, adding that it was not a reflection of “real wage pressures”.

“The first thing that comes to mind here is the scene in ‘The Wizard of Oz, ‘ where we hear the line ‘pay no attention to the man behind the curtain”, said Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at financial information website Bankrate.Com.

On the goods producing side of the economy, payroll growth slumped from the 66,000 positions added in August to just 9,000 for September.

The unemployment rate has nevertheless fallen to its lowest level since 2001, down 0.2 percentage point to 4.2?%.

The decline is despite the unemployment rate falling to 4.2 per cent, a 16-year low. It’s probably a temporary blip.

Still, it is almost certain that, had it not been for the hurricanes, job growth would have been positive for a record 84th consecutive month. That could make the household survey a cleaner reading on underlying labor-market conditions last month.

There was a significant impact on the data from hurricanes Harvey and Irma with a notable dip in employment numbers for the month due to storm damage. The civilian labor force grew by 575,000, and the number of Americans not in the labor force fell by 368,000.

With that said, BLS says the hurricanes made no notable impact on the employment report other than reducing the estimate of total non-farm payroll employment for the month. Also worth noting as a positive was that the number of unemployed persons declined by 331,000 to 6.8 million.

“The tightening labor market.assures more wage gains in the near future”, said National Association of Realtors economist Lawrence Yun in a report. Hourly employees in the area who couldn’t work and missed a paycheck would be counted as not working, thereby lowering the September job gain.

Adult men (3.9) and women (3.9) unemployment rates showed little change from August.

The Department of Labor released its hiring and unemployment report for the month of September Friday, and it’s bad news for President Trump.