Jobs Recovery Or One-Off Blip?
Last month, the BLS reported a stunning gain of 162k jobs in August. Accordingly, economists began to think the job market malaise may finally be thawing. The latest BLS report makes the August data seem like a one-off blip versus a trend change. Last Friday's report showed a pick-up of only 29k jobs, about a third of the consensus, and the unemployment rate climbed to 4.2% from 4.1%. Further pointing to weakness, average hourly earnings edged up five cents to $37.81, a 0.1% gain, which equates to a decline in wages on an inflation-adjusted basis. The revisions to prior data were also poor…
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