Employers add 148,000 to payrolls in September as unemployment rate ticks down to 7.2 percent. Weak data may prolong Federal Reserve stimulus effort.
The job market weakened in September amid a slowdown in key growth engines such as healthcare and leisure — a worrisome sign given that the employment picture probably worsened this month with the partial federalgovernment shutdown.
Employers last month added a modest 148,000 net new jobs, the Labor Department said Tuesday. That was down from an upwardly revised job growth of 193,000 in August, and well below analysts’ forecasts for about 180,000 new jobs in September.
The unemployment rate last month dropped a notch, to a five-year low of 7.2 percent, but that was partly the result of workers leaving the labor market.
When the Federal Reserve began open-ended bond buying with newly printed money last fall, it hoped to generate forward momentum in America’s labor market. And as recently as August some economists say it seemed to have some success. But the recent data suggest a frustrating reversal of that momentum, with conventional economists confounded and no clear explanation (http://econ.st/1afngiZ). The reason is that in a stagnate economy there is no need for job growth with companies focused on labor and cost saving efficiencies. As technology is always changing, evolving and maturing, production efficiencies benefit at the expense of less need for labor workers. It will be only in the short term of significant economic growth that those able and willing to work will see job opportunities as teams of people and machines compete globally to build a new economy that can support general affluence for EVERY American.
