U.S. unemployment rate drops to 6-year low at 5.9%

CRAIN's CLEVELAND BUSINESS ^ | 10/03/2014 | SCOTT SUTTELL

[SeekAndFind]

The U.S. unemployment rate is below 6% for the first time in more than six years.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday morning, Oct. 3, that the economy added 248,000 jobs in September, pushing the unemployment rate down to 5.9% from 6.1% in August. The unemployment rate hadn’t been below the 6% mark since July 2008, according to BLS historical data.

Employment increased most strongly in professional and business services, retail trade and health care, the government said.

The government said the number of people unemployed in September declined by 329,000 to 9.3 million. During the last year, the U.S. unemployment rate has fallen by 1.3 percentage points, from 7.2% in September 2013, and the number of people unemployed has dropped by 1.9 million.

The payroll employment gain of 248,000 in September exceeded the average monthly gain of 213,000 over the prior 12 months.

BLS said professional and business services added 81,000 jobs in September, compared with an average gain of 56,000 per month over the prior 12 months. Employment in retail trade rose by 35,000 in September. Health care added 23,000 jobs in September, in line with the prior 12-month average gain of 20,000 jobs per month.

The report indicated that the previous two months look better, too, from a job-creation perspective.

[xzins]

All we are doing, is buying way too much stuff, imported from China.

I agree with you.

In the same way as bringing in low wage illegals drives wages down, so does bringing in low price cheapo goods. Chinese low wage workers drive our wages down.

I would rather bring the textile industry back to the USA, and pay more for a few quality shirts and live with fewer in my closet. The cheapo things with the tiniest snag develop holes after just a few months use.

[bert]

I have been expecting this for months.

It is early in the month but likely the last good news to be expected by Obama.

His recent speeches on the economy were forshadowing the good news that will prove him right. He is a totally corrupt scoundrel that is bad to the core

[rjsimmon]

Yes, a friend of mine who lost his near 6 figure salary job 2 years ago...just got a job...at Lowes.

I am in a similar situation. Retired from the Corps and found work making right at 100k but lost that when the contract expired. Now I am working for 1/3 that amount.

[tanknetter]

The NY Reserve has a study out (there’s a thread about it here on FR, somewhere) tying the Republican refusal to extend unemployment benefits to the decline in unemployment.

Thats something that Republican candidates can and should take advantage of. Because there’s no way for the Dems to fight it. Here’s why:

Unemployment benefits are tied to people actually looking for work, right? So when the benefits were ended, a lot of the unemployed lost the incentive to even conduct cursory job searches.

Once they did that they’re no longer, technically unemployed. They’ve left the workforce. Driving down both the unemployment figure AND the labor force participation rate.

Which makes this an easy issue for Republicans to run with. They can take credit for the lower unemployment numbers, and the only way for the Dems to actually respond is to point out that those numbers are BS and draw focus to the participation rate.

Which obliterates Dem claims about an improving economy ...

[rhubarbk]

Stop it you're killin' me I tell ya!

The Brown Clown Comedy Show on every Thursday at 9.

[RckyRaCoCo]

Nah, like me he despises the usurper.

It's an Obama job, under 40 hrs, no bennies.

[SeekAndFind]

Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey

Series Id:           LNS11300000
Seasonally Adjusted
Series title:        (Seas) Labor Force Participation Rate
Labor force status:  Civilian labor force participation rate
Type of data:        Percent or rate
Age:                 16 years and over

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
2004	66.1	66.0	66.0	65.9	66.0	66.1	66.1	66.0	65.8	65.9	66.0	65.9
2005	65.8	65.9	65.9	66.1	66.1	66.1	66.1	66.2	66.1	66.1	66.0	66.0
2006	66.0	66.1	66.2	66.1	66.1	66.2	66.1	66.2	66.1	66.2	66.3	66.4
2007	66.4	66.3	66.2	65.9	66.0	66.0	66.0	65.8	66.0	65.8	66.0	66.0
2008	66.2	66.0	66.1	65.9	66.1	66.1	66.1	66.1	66.0	66.0	65.9	65.8
2009	65.7	65.8	65.6	65.7	65.7	65.7	65.5	65.4	65.1	65.0	65.0	64.6
2010	64.8	64.9	64.9	65.2	64.9	64.6	64.6	64.7	64.6	64.4	64.6	64.3
2011	64.2	64.2	64.2	64.2	64.2	64.0	64.0	64.1	64.2	64.1	64.1	64.0
2012	63.7	63.9	63.8	63.7	63.8	63.8	63.7	63.5	63.6	63.7	63.6	63.6
2013	63.6	63.5	63.3	63.4	63.4	63.5	63.4	63.2	63.2	62.8	63.0	62.8
2014	63.0	63.0	63.2	62.8	62.8	62.8	62.9	62.8	62.7

[rhubarbk]

Laz, don’t give ‘em any ideas . . . PLEASE!

[palmer]

yes and yes

[palmer]

The monthly added jobs are net. They are needed to keep up with new young people entering the work force and immigration. Of course we still have a ton of people leaving the work force, many involuntarily.

[Fresh Wind]

Unemployment down, gas prices down, what’s going on?

Oh, yeah, there’s an election coming soon, and Rats are in trouble.

[Starboard]

Which makes this an easy issue for Republicans to run with.

***********
I completely agree with you but I don’t have confidence that the clueless Republicans will ever leverage your argument. For some reason, they just don’t ever play to win.

[wally_bert]

Any despised of the 0 is ok in my book. Hope things will get better. I had a couple tough years myself about 3 years ago. Grateful for anything decent.

[fishtank]

[going hot]

A this rate the numbers will be in the negative soon.

[Personal Responsibility]

Torture statistics long enough and they’ll say anything you want.

[Personal Responsibility]

The problem is the way the Unemployment number is derived. Once a person is past 99(!) weeks of unemployment, they no longer count - they’re treated as if they got a job.

To be completely Orwellian, 100 weeks after the entire country lost their jobs, the unemployment number would be 0.0%!

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

92 million unemployed out of a population of 320 million yet they say 5.9%. I guess they are using common core math.

[pfflier]

What a coincidence, yesterday obummer said we need to focus on the economy.

Similar coincidences just before elections have been common for this administration including last year's 8 million healthcare enrollment magically achieved on the last possible day. And who can forget the unemployment rate suddenly improving just before Nov 2012??

Unfortunately though you can fool all of the uniformed all of the time.

[LostInBayport]

I see what you did there!