September's Employment Report -- Truly Awful

The government put out its report on employment for September.  There were 142,000 jobs created during the month, but the numbers for the two prior month were revised substantially lower, so the total jobs are only up 80,000 from the figure reported last month.  The economists who predict these things were expecting an increase of over 200,000 jobs, so this is a big, big miss.  On top of this, there was no real increase in wages.  The unemployment rate stayed at 5.1%, but that was only because more people gave up looking for work.

These numbers are so weak that they almost guarantee that the Federal Reserve will not raise rates in October.  (Of course, it's the Fed, so you can't be absolutely sure.)  These numbers also make clear that the higher GDP growth in the second quarter was just a bounce back from the terrible numbers of the first quarter rather than the start of a more robust and normal recovery for the economy.

It would be nice to think that someone at the White House would pay attention to the slowing economy and propose something to get it moving again.  Most likely, however, the next few weeks will be all about gun control and befuddlement regarding foreign policy.  Obama has announced many, many times that he is pivoting to the economy, but somehow he never comes up with any proposals.