The Latest: Delayed job report shows 119,000 jobs added in September
(AP) – – U.S. employers added a surprisingly solid 119,000 jobs in September, the government said, issuing a key economic report that had been delayed for seven weeks by the federal government shutdown.
The unemployment rate rose to 4.4% from 4.3% in August, the Labor Department said Thursday.
The increase in payrolls was more than double the 50,000 economists had forecast. But Labor Department revisions showed that the economy lost 4,000 jobs in August instead of gaining 22,000 as originally reported.
During the 43-day U.S. government shutdown, investors, businesses, policymakers and the Federal Reserve were groping in the dark for clues about the health of the American job market. The federal workers who collect data on hiring and unemployment had been furloughed and couldn’t do their jobs.
Here’s the latest:
Multicultural New Orleans awaits arrival of ‘Swamp Sweep’ immigration crackdown
New Orleans, the laid-back city known as the Big Easy and the birthplace of jazz, where lavish parades, bead-throwing debauchery and Creole cuisine attract tourists from around the globe, is about to become the next staging ground for the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda.
Operation “Swamp Sweep,” an expansive, monthslong immigration crackdown, is expected to launch in southeast Louisiana Dec. 1, but Democrat-run New Orleans is anticipating the arrival of as many as 250 federal troops as soon as Friday, all with the backing of the state’s Republican governor.
Gov. Jeff Landry has sought to align New Orleans with federal immigration enforcement efforts through legislation and legal challenges, and the Border Patrol deployment is just the latest drive to ramp up that pressure. And with the New Orleans Police Department being released from a federal reform pact Wednesday, its officers have lost a legal mechanism that has long-shielded them from having to participate in immigration enforcement.
▶ Read more about the immigration crackdown in New Orleans
US employers added surprisingly solid 119,000 jobs in September, government says in delayed report
The unemployment rate rose to 4.4% from 4.3% in August, the Labor Department said Thursday.
The increase in payrolls was more than double the 50,000 economists had forecast. But Labor Department revisions showed the economy lost 4,000 jobs in August instead of gaining 22,000 as originally reported.
During the 43-day U.S. government shutdown, investors, businesses, policymakers and the Federal Reserve were groping in the dark for clues about the health of the American job market because federal workers had been furloughed and couldn’t collect the data.
The report comes at a time of considerable uncertainty about the economy. The job market has been strained by the lingering effects of high interest rates and uncertainty around President Trump’s erratic campaign to slap taxes on imports from almost every country on earth. But economic growth at midyear was resilient.
▶ Read more about the U.S. jobs report
Americans like democracy, but don’t believe it or US institutions are working well, poll finds
About half of U.S. adults believe democracy is functioning “very” or “moderately” poorly in the United States, while only around one-quarter think it’s doing “very” or “moderately” well, according to a new poll, marking a sharp decline from several decades ago when majorities thought democracy was generally working the way it should.
The Kettering Foundation-Gallup survey found that about two-thirds of Americans “strongly agree” or “agree” that democracy is the best form of government. Very few disagree, with about one-third saying they don’t have an opinion. But alongside the widespread disappointment in how democracy is working, few believe the country’s leaders are committed to democratic governance or think government decisions reflect the will of the people.
Few U.S. adults doubt their fellow Americans’ commitment to strong democracy, according to the poll, but they’re less certain about their political leadership. More than 4 in 10 Americans don’t believe their leaders are committed to having a strong democracy, while about 3 in 10 say they’re not sure.
▶ Read more about the poll on democracy in the U.S.
Labor Department said Wednesday that it won’t won’t release a full jobs report for October
That’s because it couldn’t calculate the unemployment rate during the government shutdown.
Instead, it will release some of the October jobs data — including the number of jobs that employers created last month — along with the full November jobs report Dec. 16, a couple of weeks late.
That puts an even more intense focus on September jobs numbers released Thursday. They are the last full measurement of hiring and unemployment that Fed policymakers will see before they meet Dec. 9-10 to decide whether to cut their benchmark interest rate for the third time this year.
Chief US economist at Santander bank is more optimistic about September hiring than most peers
Stephen Stanley forecasts that employers added 75,000 jobs.
President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration is expected to reduce the number of people looking for work, which means the economy can create fewer jobs without sending the unemployment rate higher.
In the past, Stanley wrote in a commentary Wednesday, the “breakeven’’ point for monthly job creation was seen as somewhere between 125,000 and 150,000; but as fewer immigrants seek work, he says, the job market can remain stable even if employers add just 50,000 jobs a month, maybe fewer.
