#BLS #NFP
Yes, the Employment Situation Report, coming up in 15 minutes, is NOT the big news of the day.

But this is the last report before the election and bears notice. Again, look only at private sector numbers today as the gov't jobs may still be distorted by census hiring.

Non-farm Payrolls rise by 661,000 in September (the survey date last month was the 16th). U-3 Unemployment comes in at 7.9% But the private sector came in at +877,000 as 216,000 government jobs were eliminated.

The @jobqualityindex and #JQInstant readouts will be coming up soon.

We see the restoration this month of more low-wage/low-hours jobs in Leisure and Hospitality +318K (mostly restaurants); Retail +142K; Healthcare and Social Assistance +107K and Administrative +31K.
On the other hand the restoration of 68K manufacturing jobs is most welcome.

U6 Unemployment falls to 12.8%, still almost double year ago levels.

The elimination of the government jobs is NOT census related (only -34K federal). The rest of the -216K total loss in government is state and local - likely due to fiscal cutbacks.
Census reduction next month!

Weekly hours up a tenth to 34.7, and hourly wages remain elevated at $29.47 and weekly incomes at $1,022.61 because of all the low-wage/low-hour jobs still absent from the employment sector as a result of the crisis.

Should note that we did get positive revisions totaling 172K for the prior two months. But not sure yet how many were government vs private sector.

Of particular concern in today's #BLS data was the reduction of the labor force by -695,000 (with a commensurate loss of -0.3% in the labor force participation rate). This may evidence considerable risk of workers giving up looking for jobs that are not there to be found.

The large reduction in the labor force is, of course, materially responsible for the fall in the unemployment rate to 7.9%.

The decline in state and local government jobs (mostly teachers) of 182,000 is, from the perspective of the economy, every bit as problematic as the huge losses in the private sector since the crisis began. Demand is demand.