For the first time in seven years, the economy went a month without payroll growth.
The Department of Labor’s September employment report revealed the impact of
Hurricanes Harvey and Irma: it showed 33,000 fewer people working. Average
hourly wages rose 0.5% to take the annualized gain to 2.9%, but this may have been
an effect of the net loss of 105,000 lower-paying bar and restaurant jobs. In a
statistical fluke, the headline jobless rate fell to 4.2%, and the U-6 rate, counting the
underemployed, declined to 8.3%, even as slightly more Americans looked for work.1
1 – bloomberg.com/news/articles/