U.S. payrolls expanded by 56,000 in October

Associated Press via MSNBC ^ | October 4, 2005

[Daralundy]

WASHINGTON - America’s payrolls grew by a rather tepid 56,000 in October, a sign that the nation’s job market is slowly regaining its footing after the beating administered to the Gulf Coast area by Hurricane Katrina. The unemployment rate dipped to 5 percent of the labor force.

The latest snapshot released by the Labor Department on Friday offered fresh insights into the impact of Katrina, the most costly natural disaster in U.S. history.

Importantly, job losses in September turned out to be just 8,000, according to revised figures. That was smaller than the 35,000 decline in jobs that was reported a month ago, suggesting the damage to the job market from Katrina wasn’t as terrible as many had feared. Still, the storm was certainly felt: The drop in payrolls in September was the first nationwide employment decline in two years.

The unemployment rate, meanwhile, edged down to 5 percent in October as some people opted to leave the civilian labor force for any number of reasons. The jobless rate in September had crept up to 5.1 percent.

“The United States’ economy is strong. It’s healthy,” President Bush proclaimed Friday while attending the Summit of the Americas in Argentina

[oolatec]

So, who decides what "tepid" is anyway? These "experts" who have a habit of overguessing jobs gains every month, and when their guesses aren't matched, it's all doom and gloom? Pfff.

[Uncledave]

Jobs decrease = Bush's fault.

Jobs increase = Bush's fault